Blue Jeans
by FollowThatConvoy
Summary: AU. By request and my own curiosity... A Brokeback Mountain storyline involving Alice and Claire. Other characters will eventually show up, as well as different pairings. Hope you like it! Rated M for future chapters. FEMMELASH
1. Dust and smokes

**N/A:** So, here I am, under pressure and all, trying my best not to screw up the whole idea that's been floating around Clairice Aberfield shippers' minds... I'm only doing this because I really want to see that unrolling like all of you. Suggestions/comments are always welcome and appreciated (=

**Disclaimer:**__I don't own Resident Evil, Claire, Alice, Jill or neither of those amazing people from the movies. If I did, I'd be with them instead of writing about their awesomeness…

**Blue jeans**

**1. Dust and smokes**

It was hot, goddamned hot as Alice Abernathy jumped off the truck. Her jackboots stomped hard against the creaked asphalt, and she could almost feel the heat coming up her legs. She raised her green eyes, using one hand to shade them so she could stare at the driver.

She saluted him, slammed the door shut and gave it a soft pat as she turned on her heels and walked away. She heard the vehicle's engine spring back to life and her previous ride leave her, taking its original course on the highway towards Las Vegas.

Squinting, the tall blonde found her way among the modest streets of Raccoon City, walking past its shy inhabitants. Some actually smiled at her. Maybe they felt safe in what seemed to be the only place left to live in the country, or it was her who looked too scary with a gun poking out of her jeans. Either way she didn't know what was there to smile about. The blonde acquiesced as she found the recruiting office that she heard about a few destroyed cities away.

The iron door was sealed shut with chains and a padlock as most things were these days. The virus had devastated almost everything, including people's trust on each other. A large red and white insignia covered the not so ruined wall, and for a moment she wondered why a red cross like the Pope's would be doing there. Then she read the name of the office right underneath the symbol, and she gathered it.

Umbrella was a weird name for a security company, but she had been unemployed for far too long to start being picky now. She had lived on the road for the past three years since the outbreak, sleeping on abandoned cars' back seats, desert motel rooms and even on clean beds. The last was the most unusual scenario; Alice usually avoided human contact, but sometimes it was too hard to refuse a hot meal and bedsheets in exchange of protection.

She had met many people on her journey through the country. Some unprepared families tried to 'adopt' her, wanting her to stay permanently. She gruffly dismissed every invitation, hating the intimacy almost as much as she hated those who had tried to kill her. Others simply accepted her accidental and elusive transition through their lives, such as Carlos and Matt, and let her go.

And now here she was, taking another step into this dusty end-of-the-world town, hoping she didn't have to stay long. The plan was to work that summer and then head north. Not that she needed the money, but Alice definitively was starting to feel worn out. Her intention didn't go further than having a place to stay and the chance to grab a few supplies before she kicked off again, and she knew she'd have to work for it.

She tugged on her hat's brim to avoid the sun on her face as she rested her aching back against the wall. Alice fished for a crumpled pack of Marlboros on her back pocket and lit it with a match. Cigarettes were easier to find than food now. She usually broke into convenience stores at gas stations, and once she had even run into a distribution plant, but she decided to cherish the half pack she still had on her. God only knew when she'd hit the road again to find more.

The sun seemed to be frying her brains, and maybe that's why she almost gave up on that endless wait bullshit. A yellow Hummer came into view, turning the corner and slowly parking in front of the office, its tires ungracefully crashing the gravel. Alice imagined that the son of a bitch of her employer had finally made it, when she spotted a long mane of strawberry blonde hair under a ball cap.

She lowered her eyes and hung her head, expecting that the hat's brim would keep her face hidden. As the driver strolled softly towards her, she decided it was probably another one who'd require information or even ask if she could take a look at her car engine. Her dirty outfit and short hair usually gave the idea that she was a guy at distance.

"Excuse me?" asked a cautious voice. It seemed to ring well to Alice's ears, because she looked up right away. Her eyes met soft, blue ones. The redhead hooked her aviators on the collar of her dusty top and removed the ball cap.

"I don't fix cars," Alice gruffly said, throwing her cigarette away on a dry bush.

"Like I'd need you for that," the redhead scoffed. At the blonde's silence, she shifted her weight to her left leg. "I'm looking for a job."

"Guy's not here yet."

"Oh, so you're applying too?"

Alice only nodded; she thought it was obvious since no one was stupid enough to purposely melt under that scalding sun.

"I'm Claire Redfield," the redhead offered a hand. Alice took it, realizing how softer and smaller it was compared to hers.

"Alice."

Claire stared at her and then lowered her head, watching the tips of her boots with little interest. She had an inquisitive expression when she looked up again, and Alice knew that, like everyone else, Claire had expected to hear her last name too. She was just about to accept that all humans were the same, when the redhead surprised her.

"Do you have any smokes?" she asked instead.

"It was my last," Alice lied.

"Oh."

Claire seemed disappointed, but Alice was not bothered by that. Claire had a ride, she might as well find her own cigarettes. If the redhead could be just a little less… _invasive_… then maybe Alice could have liked her.

Just as if she could read Alice's unreadable face, Claire shut her mouth for the remaining half hour that the asshole from Umbrella took to finally arrive. He was tall and had a broad chest, plastered blond hair and eyes concealed behind sunglasses. Despite the sun, he wore dark clothes that didn't seem to fit in with all the dust and abandon of the city.

He got off a fancy BMW motorcycle and marched towards the sealed door, barely registering the women. He unlocked the pad and slid the rusty chains with precision. One strong pull and the door slid sideways. He entered the office and left it open.

Claire assumed that it was as much as she'd get for an invitation, so she walked to the door but stopped once she saw her path blocked by the back of a very smudged shirt. The tall woman, Alice, removed her hat to reveal unruly sand blond hair. It looked like she had cut it herself with some blunt blade – it was slightly different in length depending on the spot of her head.

Claire had a smirk on her lips when Alice gave a step back for her to go first.

"Nice hair," she purred. Alice rolled her eyes. That woman could stop talking at all?

"What are you two capable of besides looking dirty?" the blond man asked from a dark corner, sitting behind a metal desk. He had a distinct British accent and had not removed his sunglasses, and it felt creepy to be watched by him like that.

"I can fix most engines there are," Claire promptly said. "Mr… uh-"

"Albert Wesker," he offered with a wolfish grin that Alice didn't like. "But you can call me Chairman. You are?"

"Claire Redfield."

"Well, Claire Redfield, I think we could use some of your skills. What about you?" he tilted his head towards Alice. "Scare birds away with one look?"

Alice shifted uncomfortably on her spot, pursing her lips as she felt Claire's eyes on her. "I was in the Army," she huskily replied, looking past the redhead and straight at Wesker. "I'm good at killing, if that's what you mean."

She heard Claire gasp almost inaudibly a few steps away to her right. Wesker had a smirk that was displeasing her with each passing second.

"I could use you too," he said with a short nod. "Private-?"

"Alice," she said coldly, walking to the door to leave. But before she could do that, she looked at him one last time. "And I was Major."

"Good," Wesker snickered. "You start tomorrow at zero five hundred hours. Don't be late. _Major_."

Alice barely acknowledged the sarcasm and left. Military titles sounded absurdly ridiculous now, and she knew it. Once she was outside, she was hit again by a strong blow of hot breeze, and her forehead soon became moist under the hat.

Alice rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and rummaged for another cigarette. She still had to find somewhere to stay the night in that God forsaken town, and she was better do it before it got dark. Curfews were very common where small populations gathered, and she usually got in trouble for disrespecting it.

She dragged her cigarette slowly, closing her eyes as the boiling sun punished her skin. Beads of sweat rolled down her neck and spine, and she felt slightly hungry. It was ten past noon, and if she was counting right, she hadn't eaten anything in two days.

The purr of an engine drew closer. She kept walking even though she had an idea of what was about to happen.

"I thought you said that was your last cigarette," Claire's voice said behind her back.

Alice turned around and found the redhead looking defiantly at her. "Well, I lied," the blonde said simply.

Claire sighed and her expression changed. "Fine," the redhead gave in to her frustration, and Alice found it quite amusing. "What do you want?"

"I don't want anything."

"C'mon… a ride?"

Alice chuckled humorlessly. "I have nowhere to go to."

"A place to stay, then?"

"Forget it."

"Don't be such an asshole!" Claire exclaimed, getting out of the car and slamming the door in the process. She strode with determination towards Alice and stopped in front of the taller woman with her hands in her hips. "There must be _something_ you want!"

Alice looked at Claire. Her green eyes took a full minute on the redhead, watching her intently, just expecting the moment she would falter and finally fail to challenge Alice like that. A shade of crimson erupted on Claire's cheeks, but she squinted with defiance at the blonde before spinning on her heels and marching back to the Hummer. "Idiot," she snarled under her breath.

Alice smiled. "At least you had the last word and won the discussion."

"Fuck you, Alice," Claire snarled, turning the keys and making the engines roar again.

"You could at least buy me a drink first," Alice said, turning her back to the Hummer and starting to walk away.

"Enjoy your night out, Major," Claire said with a poignant grin as she easily paired up with Alice.

"I will," Alice laughed; she produced the pack of Marlboro from her pocket and wobbled it playfully at her arm's length.

She heard Claire hiss something unpleasant; the redhead hit the gas pedal and disappeared in a cloud of dust. Alice shook her head and focused on the task she had ahead. She only needed to make it though one more night.

The blonde wandered the streets of Raccoon City and easily hid in the creepy shadows of a barn by the highway. The straw was softer than the earthy ground, at least. With both hands behind her head, she watched the sky getting darker and darker, no stars on the wide firmament. After curfew, it was a simple matter of slithering inside the local pub after unlocking the door with a hair pin.

Bathed by a pale moonlight she found it, hidden like a treasure in the back of the kitchen. She grabbed the bottle of whiskey and took a large gulp. Alcohol was not as easy to find as smokes, but it still was more fulfilling than food. It lasted long and helped her sleep, feeling no hunger or bitterness at all.


	2. Turn the lights off

**N/A 1:** Soooo… The cause of all this - for posting the awesome picture of Milla dressed as a cowboy for a jeans advertise and having the Brokeback Mountain idea in the first place – Elisa, this one's for you ;)

**N/A 2: **Thanks everyone who took their time to write reviews and follow the story, I do hope you keep enjoying it!

**Disclaimer:**I don't own Resident Evil, Claire, Alice, Jill or neither of those amazing people from the movies. If I did, I'd be with them instead of writing about their awesomeness…

Find me on tumblr:

**2. Turn the lights off**

She woke up in pain, and the moment she opened her eyes, Alice immediately closed them again. The brightness made her eyes burn and a major, excruciating headache started to spread inside her skull, pressing her temples mercilessly.

Turning on her side, Alice spotted the bottle of whiskey she had almost emptied last night. It probably rolled over from her grip and now stood there, forgotten, the sight of the amber liquid giving her nausea.

"I'm probably getting old," she grunted to herself, trying to stand up but failing miserably. Her head spun and her knees faltered once or twice, until she could finally stand on her full height.

Alice felt dizzy as her head throbbed and her stomach squirmed and complained about the lack of food. Three days without any meal and she had expected to wake up in better mood… As she collected her shameful amount of belongings, another train hit Alice's head. Umbrella.

"Shit!" she growled, getting another pang on her temples as she moved frantically over the straw covered barn. "_Shit shit _SHIT!"

Considering the sun high up in the sky, she knew it was over for her. Alice collected the bottle from the floor, deciding to take it with her. She would probably need it. The blonde placed her hat back on her head, not even bothering to untie the knots on her disheveled hair.

To say it was alarmingly hotter than the day before was an understatement. It was like the Earth suddenly became Hell, and she was just another condemned soul walking and stomping, hoping she would find the end of that road.

The barn she had spent the night in wasn't that far from the Umbrella office, but the walk seemed like eternity. Alice rubbed her eyes when she saw the yellow Hummer parked in front of the small building.

"What the fuck-?"

As she slowly approached it, there was a flash of red and Claire Redfield jumped off the car. The younger woman leaned her hip against the vehicle with her arms folded, a look of satisfaction plastered on her face.

"Morning, Major," she said. "Sleep well?"

"What the hell are you doing here again?" Alice hissed. At first it had been kind of fun, but now she was absolutely pissed and had had enough of that girl. "Why aren't you out there, fixing… whatever exists?" Alice cringed, rubbing her eyes as the pain seemed to change locations inside her head.

Hands were on her face before she knew it. Claire removed her hat and placed a hand on her sweaty forehead. More out of reflex than anything, Alice quickly disentangled herself from Claire and took a safe distance.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked exasperated, almost tripping over her feet.

"I was just trying to help!" Claire stepped away, looking offended. "Let me guess… Underfed, dehydrated, suffers from insomnia and drinks your ass off."

"You don't know me," Alice snapped.

"Your breath smells like a gas station."

Alice scoffed at her smartass attitude, but deep down she was a little ashamed. She was not used to people figuring out the worst of her so quickly. "Well done, Sherlock," she muttered under her breath, noticing how bad it really was.

Claire shook her head and turned away. She entered the vehicle and was back a few seconds later. She had a bottle of water in her hand, which she offered to Alice.

"No, thank you," the blonde murmured. Water was more valuable than anything, maybe even more than petroleum had been when the world was still world, and she could not accept that from the person she'd been treating so rudely.

"Stop trying to be so noble," Claire shoved it into her hand. "You're a totally suck at it."

Alice felt her lips twitching, and an involuntary smirk crisped them upwards. She thought the redhead saw it, because Alice heard her chuckle as she re-entered the car.

"Maybe you wanna stay inside to wait for Chairman, too. It's fucking hot out there."

This time Alice simply complied and climbed onto the Hummer, taking the passenger seat and appreciating the simple comfort of it. She rested her tired head against the leather and closed her eyes as she rummaged her pockets.

When she opened them and turned to Claire, she noticed the redhead had been looking at her intently. Alice ignored it and threw the pack of cigarettes at Claire's lap.

Claire smiled. "We can share it."

"Who's trying to be noble now?" Alice said with a smug grin. It was the first time that she saw Claire actually laugh, and the sight soothed her tightened chest for a minute. "So… What are you doing here?"

"Chairman hired us both," Claire answered. "He told me to get here by seven, but he's late again."

"_Asshole_," Alice hissed. "He told me to be here at five."

"Look, there he is," the redhead pointed out, checking the BMW ride through the rearview mirror. "_Sucker_."

Alice smirked; she adjusted her hat and got out of the car with Claire, pleased to see the look of surprise on Wesker's face. He probably had expected her to bail the offer, and she wondered whether he considered her a threat or not.

"You're relocating to Nevada," he said glancing at the pair with contempt. "We have a facility there that has to be watched – we need maintenance of equipments such as cars and electronic devices, and we need security. This means you fix and you shoot," he said respectively to Claire and to Alice. "Supplies and clothing items are inside the office. You'll find two gallons of gas for the car, it must be enough to go and come back. And girls," he finally removed his sunglasses, revealing dark, cold eyes as he worked on the padlock. "There's just one rule. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out. Don't try anything, because I'll know, and this isn't good. Is that clear?"

Claire frowned at his smile; it didn't match all the abuse and the harshness of the threats he was making. It was Alice who brought her back to reality, carrying two large duffel bags she had picked from the office's small deposit. She didn't look shaken by Chairman's words, but they still rang darkly in Claire's ears. The redhead quickly opened the door for her, and Alice threw their baggage unceremoniously at the back seat of the Hummer.

"This is great," the blonde grunted, realizing that Umbrella had provided only a dog-eared map to help them as she slumped down the passenger seat again.

"Never mind this shit, I can get us there," Claire said confidently, casting the folded paper away. She stared at Alice for a moment and silently reached out for her face. The blonde just waited this time instead of reacting like an animal. Claire picked and removed a considerable amount of straw from her hair, and brushed some from her shoulders.

Alice offered her a timid smile and kept her hat on her lap, trying to comb her hair with her fingers using the wing mirror. Claire had a small grin tugging at her lips when she started the ignition.

"There's a hat in here," Claire's muffled voice came from inside one duffel bag as she scavenged it. She was on the passenger seat, now, while Alice assumed the driving so that the redhead could rest a bit. "And I think… camp supplies. Oh, canned food! God only knows how I just can't stand pork and beans anymore… Hey, Alice, did you see – What?"

Alice had a bored frown as she interrupted Claire with a glare. "That's your idea of refreshment? Talking and fussing non-stop?"

Claire sighed. She was only trying to keep Alice distracted from the many miles they still had to go, and she thought it would actually please the blonde instead of annoying her.

"I was keeping you company," she grunted, a little hurt by Alice's crispy tone. She threw the bag at the back of the car again, making the cans and other metallic objects rattle and clatter. "I almost fell asleep with all your brooding and silence."

Alice decided to ignore her. The more she argued, the more Claire would try to make a point, and she _really_ wasn't in the mood. A few minutes later, Alice noted her plan had worked as Claire seemed to defer to her and lit a cigarette instead of starting conversation again. She would eventually indicate shortcuts on the main road and then fall back into silence, hugging her knees with both arms.

It was getting dark when they pulled over to fuel the Hummer. Claire had assumed the wheels again as Alice worked the makeshift pump. The blonde hopped back in the car and they moved ahead through the final miles of their trip. As it got darker, it also got slightly colder, and both women welcomed the chilly wind coming from the desert.

The facility was literally in the middle of nowhere. The Hummer's headlights fell over a rusty, tall fence with the undeniable logo attached to it. To their surprise, sentinels appeared from both sides, wearing black from head to toe and armed with machine guns. They opened the gates and allowed them in with a short salute.

Alice watched Claire's uneasy profile as she drove further into the obscure plant. Darker shades outlined tall hangars on both sides of the car, like a corridor, and there was not much illumination other than a few light posts that barely did their job.

Flashlights signaled for them to stop and other soldiers waved at them.

"Step out of the vehicle," one of them commanded, not entirely harsh but not so nicely either.

As Alice collected the duffel bags, Claire froze behind the steering wheel. The blonde was about to ask what was the problem, but the fear in Claire's face told her that the redhead probably knew something about Umbrella that she didn't. Alice threw the bags over her shoulder and jumped off the Hummer, but instead of heading to the men – which seemed a lot more prudent at this point – she walked around the front of the car and stopped next to Claire's rolled down window.

She received an alarming glare from the redhead, and saw the pressure she was using to hold the wheel. Her knuckles were white and Alice caught herself doing something that wasn't her type of move. She stretched one arm and gently squeezed the redhead's hand on the wheel, resting there until Claire's breathing went back to normal pace.

"Stay in the car," Alice whispered, the husky tone getting the younger woman's attention. Blue eyes met green, and a silent exchange took place between them. Claire nodded, and Alice took it as permission to release her hand. She then marched towards the waiting soldiers, touching the gun tuck inside her jeans.

"State business," the man ordered, directing the light beam straight into her eyes.

"Wesker hired us. For maintenance and security," she added, squinting at the clarity.

The soldier lowered the flashlight and Alice figured a very tall, dark man that stared down at her. "The car stays here. You're located at wing seven. Second block to the right." He pointed the corridor. "Set camp and avoid walking the perimeter without flashlights. You can send a flare if you get in trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" she asked with a frown.

"You don't wanna find out about that at night. Move, now."

Alice turned on her heels and went back to the Hummer. The redhead looked anxious at her. "C'mon, Claire," she tilted her head as an encouraging gesture. "We only need to walk a few blocks."

"What about my car?" she hissed.

"They'll keep it for now."

Alice thought it would take longer, but Claire nodded and got out after a moment's hesitation, taking her cap and aviators. They walked past the soldiers, and Alice noticed the way they could stand unnervingly still, like machines. They walked in silence, and this time it wasn't because Alice had said so. Claire didn't seem to be in the mood to talk while those weird people watched them.

Six hangars later and a right turn, they found a vast area covered in sand, a few contorted cacti and fence. The desert breeze was erupting goosebumps in Claire's arms, as well as that place was. Alice quietly dug their packs and started to set up a lonely and battered tent. The fabric was thick, military green, but it was inappropriate for storms – that was when she realized they would stay under a fustigating sun for a whole month.

"Can you set a fire?" Alice asked, whipping the sweat from her forehead as she buried the poles deeper where the earth was harder.

Claire said nothing and began collecting dry branches she found on the ground. When she thought she had enough, Claire sat on her knees and started to work the flintstones. Alice only watched in silence, but then she shook her head and went back to work.

Almost two hours later, both women sat in front of each other, the fire gently crepitating between them. Claire wore a blanket around her shoulders, wondering if it was indeed that cold. She looked up a few times, watching Alice slowly chew her pork and beans, and then returned her glare to her own canned meal. It tasted like crap at first, but so many years had passed and she had fragile memories of real food's taste to compare.

Eventually she'd get Alice's eyes on her, almost timid. Those damn green eyes… A snap behind her back drew her attention to her miserable position, and she looked around for the source of the noise.

"What was that?" she whispered, watching the fence with her eyes narrowed, pointing her flashlight at some of its length. Alice stayed on her sitting position, scuffing the bottom of the can with her spoon.

"Probably something we don't wanna know," she commented, watching Claire's back as the redhead quickly stood up and walked to the fence.

"It doesn't smell good," Claire shook her head, approaching the rusty grates carefully. The beam only revealed dead grass on the other side of the fence. She lowered the light and took one step to go back, when a raspy grunt made her stop dead on her tracks, a breath hitching on her throat.

"Don't move!" Alice jumped up. The look on her face did not sooth Claire; it was the first time the blonde actually seemed worried about something, and Claire needed to know what it was. She turned around slowly, the hair on the back of her neck standing up as the disgusting sucking noise continued. Milky eyes and bloody raw skin met the round flashlight's beam by the fence, inches away from grabbing her with its putrid hand.

Claire screamed at the same time that arms enclosed around her and a gun's fire echoed in the air. The gnarling was over and so was the undead, it seemed. Claire was completely coiled against Alice, face buried on her chest as angry tears rolled down her dusty cheeks. She was grabbing two handfuls of Alice's shirt as the blonde guided her back to the fire.

"I'm here," Alice whispered, for the first time allowing the redhead to be that close. She knew there was no turning back now. That always happened when she saved other people's lives. "I'm here, Claire."

Claire silently relaxed against her warm skin, taking in her woody scent and then realizing what she was doing. She took a step back, trying not to look rude or anything.

If that had bothered Alice, she did not let it show. She eyed Claire carefully, because she needed to be sure she was okay. "Try to get some sleep," she said. "I'll take watch tonight."

Claire didn't want to leave her out there alone, but she knew Alice could do more for herself than Claire could. But still… the scent still lingered, and she had liked it. A little too much, perhaps, because she didn't want to stay away from it anymore. It had been a long time since she had had contact with someone, and it had not been as tense or fierce as it had been with Alice. Alice and her damn anatomy.

"I won't be able to sleep," Claire argued.

"I'll be here if you need me. Now go," Alice shooed her with a lazy gesture, giving her back to the tent opening as she sat down by the fire again.

Claire sighed and decided to comply. At least she knew Alice would not hesitate to use her gun if she needed again. Sore from the trip and emotionally tired, Claire fell asleep almost instantly, wondering how the people she left behind were doing without her.

Alice could not stop thinking about how frail and small Claire felt against her. The redhead seemed so full of energy and attitude that it was hard to believe she could be so vulnerable.

The blonde knew it had been a lapse – she had long ago learned to handle herself and remain cold – and she noticed how embarrassed Claire had felt after they let go. The outbreak and all the Hell they went through had taught people to keep their emotions at bay, and Alice almost felt sorry that she might find a brooding and evasive Claire the next morning.

"The hell with that," she growled, rubbing her eyes and deciding she could do with a cigarette. She walked quietly towards the tent and entered it as soundlessly as she could. Claire was fast asleep on her blanket, her red hair looking darker as it spread on the tent's uncomfortable floor.

Alice almost cursed when she spotted the pack of Marlboros by Claire's head. She went down on her knees and crawled her way above the woman, hoping she wouldn't touch her. When her dirty fingers finally clasped around the pack, Alice let out a loud sigh of relieve. She immediately held her breath when Claire stirred underneath her.

She whimpered in a barely audible whisper and acquiesced again. Alice kicked herself on the inside for staying there, watching the redhead sleep. She slowly withdrew her lanky form, when Claire reached out and touched her cheek.

Alice frowned, but she didn't move.

"Turn the lights off and come back to bed," Claire whispered, turning on her side and leaving Alice's mind spinning faster than whiskey could ever manage.

The blonde left the tent, resolved that she could not sleep in there. Ever. She sat down on the redhead's previous spot, lit her cigarette with a match and envied the person that most likely heard that from Claire every night in another life.


	3. December

**N/A: Hello there! Brace yourselves for a longer/rougher/hotter/emotional chapter. I hope you all enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing. Thanks for the reviews, follows and digital brownies (winks), because they keep me going, and they keep me happy :D**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own Resident Evil, Claire, Alice, Jill or neither of those amazing people from the movies. Wish I did, though. Just saying.**

**Find us on tumblr: FollowThatConvoy and keepcalmandshipclairice**

**3. December**

Claire's eyelids parted open very softly. It took her a minute to adjust her eyes to the dimness and a moment to remember she was inside the tent. It was suffocating underneath its thick canvas, and the redhead wondered how late it already was. A shy beam of light slithered in through a small gap in the opening, and she realized it couldn't be much later than dawn. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear as she sit up, noticing the empty space next to her blanket. She sighed deeply and then went outside.

Claire had half expected Alice to be gone by now, and as her mind tried to cope with the idea, she found the blonde sleeping soundlessly by the entrance of the tent. Claire observed the tall woman as a stupid smile crept to her lips. Alice's hat lay flat next to her on the sandy ground, and her entire outfit looked dirtier than the previous day.

Alice had softer features in her sleep. She didn't look emotionless or evasive with her eyes closed, seemingly peaceful in her skin as her lanky form spread on the ground like that, her head hanging slightly to her left. Claire's eyes fell over the gun clasped in Alice's long fingers, and her stomach sunk when she remembered what had happened last night. For years she had been careful with those creatures, and all it took was a second's distraction for her to almost get bitten and see her short life end.

Claire shook her head and sighed as she threw one last glance at Alice. She didn't want to admit it, but she knew that somehow the blonde's imposing presence lowered her defenses and clouded her usually sensible judgment. Claire rummaged the duffel bag and worked on the campfire again to boil some water; it was stupid like smiling for no reason, but the idea of waking Alice with coffee felt like she still had fragments of a normal life with her.

She put a few spoons of a canned mixture that faintly looked like cappuccino, and cooked the powdered eggs she found in the second bag. The smell of food probably brought Alice back to her senses, because Claire heard her grunt and stir very ungraciously behind her. Smiling again, she carried on with breakfast, feeling slightly anxious as footsteps indicated Alice was drawing close.

"It smells good," Alice commented, her voice a lot raspier after hours without using it.

"Good morning," Claire said softly, turning to face the blonde. Alice's green eyes were on her, and she actually looked a little bit more receptive. The small change on her features already set Claire's mind skyrocketing, and she didn't know what the hell was going on with her.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked, keeping eye contact. Claire didn't know if it was the sun, but she actually felt her skin burn.

"Yeah," she nodded, wishing Alice would stop looking at her like that now. It felt like her clothes were dissolving in the air. She lowered her gaze to a metal cup and poured some make believe cappuccino on it. "Thank you," Claire added, offering it to Alice and quickly turning to grab a cup for herself.

"Thank _you_," Alice huskily replied after sipping the hot drink. She closed her eyes at this simple pleasure and enjoyed how it actually soothed her sore throat.

"Doesn't it taste like crap?" Claire chuckled shyly, finally chancing a look at Alice. The blonde's face cracked into a huge smile as she laughed.

"It tastes good enough for a _crappuccino_," she joked.

Claire flushed violently, but she could not refrain from laughing. Food seemed to improve Alice's mood, and she was glad she finally pleased the blonde instead of setting her on edge again. "I always wished I'd revolutionize kitchen in the apocalypse," she commented, setting the frying pan with the scrambled eggs between herself and Alice. "Here. Eat."

"Yes, ma'am," the blonde attacked the yellow mixture with her spoon and quickly bit it. She grinned through a mouthful of food that had Claire moaning inside her head. That stupid woman was too damn cute even when she acted like a total slob.

"What a fine lady," Claire commented, rolling her eyes as she tried hard not to smile back. Alice smirked and continued to feast on their humble meal. In a few minutes, they were both scavenging the final bits of eggs with their dirty fingers directly from the pan.

Claire sighed contently as she sucked the grease from her fingertips, and she blushed when she caught Alice staring at her with an evil smirk. "Such a refined princess yourself."

"Shut up," Claire grunted, smirking back. "I cooked for you."

"I didn't ask you to."

"You're an idiot, Alice."

The light mood floating around their camp was over when a loud siren rang in the air. Both women stood up from the sand, eyeing each other. Alice's frown told Claire the blonde knew as much as she did about it. A booing voice coming from a concealed loudspeaker answered her question.

"_Maintenance people required at hangar five. Security guards from wings three, four and seven can start running your established perimeter. Activities end at the next curfew_."

Claire walked silently towards the tent, small portions of sand rising around her boots at each step she took. Alice put on her hat and wondered whether it was a good idea to take one cigarette with her or not. She followed the redhead to the tent to check how many they still had, and when she peered through the canvas, she froze on her spot. Claire had her back on her. Her bare back because, for some insane reason, she was changing her tank top for another.

Alice gapped at the straps of her dark bra, the curves of her waist, the descent line of her spine towards her lower back and the waistband of her dirty jeans. Her red hair cascaded down her pale skin and her slightly freckled shoulders. Alice swallowed hard when Claire turned her head to the side; her blue eyes were focused on the new top, but Alice knew she had been caught.

"Do you need anything?" Claire asked quietly.

"No," Alice grunted, feeling nervous with Claire's tense tone.

"I'll be out in a second," the redhead said, picking her aviators and her cap.

Alice didn't even apologize. She stormed out of the tent, breathing loud and wiping the sweat between her nose and mouth with her forearm, unable to decide what to do with her hands. She heard Claire nearing her from behind and kind of expected a swat in the back of the head, but nothing came. The redhead stopped next to her. There was a cigarette on her outstretched hand.

"I guess I'll see you after curfew, then," Claire said simply. She didn't look mad for Alice spying on her. "You be careful with those things."

Alice gave her a silent nod after accepting the smoke, feeling genuinely bitter that Claire still cared about her. She watched the redhead's retreating form, wishing she had a second gun to give to Claire. Wesker had meant she was to secure that the undead stayed where they were, and now the blonde only cared about the other woman's security. She was a former military, and she could look out for herself, but what about Claire? She highly doubted that the Umbrella's soldiers would care much about another survivor getting hurt.

Alice rolled up the sleeves of her shirt feeling frustration build up on her. How long would she have to wait until she could come back to their camp and find Claire was fine? She holstered her gun on her belt and decided to start working.

**XXX**

The perimeter she was bounded to watch did not go further than two miles, and she could virtually see nothing besides sand, fence and eventual dead vegetation. The sun was already burning her skin, and she wondered when the hell the seasons had ceased to change for good. She hadn't seen rain in months, and it seemed to be infernally hot everywhere.

Alice approached the fence when she was about a mile away from the tent. The desert beyond the precarious barrier seemed to run a few more miles and she saw, almost in the horizon, what seemed like an abandoned house. From that distance it might as well be a huge factory, but it was impossible to tell.

She removed her hat and shaded her eyes with her hand, searching the skies. No signs of those goddamned birds despite the fact that she thought she heard caws not so far away. Alice could not precise the extension of the fence's length, and she figured Umbrella had separated a square in the world to throw the undead in. It was weird, and she didn't see the point in it when it was so much easier to shoot them. Unless there was something else to it that she did not know, and that instantly reminded her of Claire's expression of fear the night before.

Alice wished she had stories to tell Claire. The redhead had mentioned things about her past in the Hummer, and now Alice wished she had paid attention to them. She was so busy being an asshole that she didn't care about Claire's needs to talk and share. She knew it was a desperate attempt to keep memories from dying and getting lost in history, but she really couldn't give it a fuck back then. Not when she had no recollections herself.

Alice had flashes of the quarters she worked in the exact night the virus started to take control of everything. She could not remember the names of her subordinates, and she had absolutely no idea why she was the only one left behind. After the outbreak, she woke up under a Jeep, covered in dirt and blood. Her head was hurting like hell, and as she crawled her way from under the car, she realized she was still inside quarters, and that everyone else was gone.

She remembered she worked there, and a quick glance at the name tag stitched to her uniform told her she was Major. And that was pretty much all she knew. Her first name came back to her in nightmares where people screamed for her, and since then she had traveled alone, carrying as much weaponry as she could. As time went by, Alice had learned she would have to dispose of a few guns. At first she had opted for the less lethal, and eventually she gave up on the heavy armory.

The hand gun she currently possessed was practical, light and easy to reload if she ran out of bullets. A strange memory told her she could make bullets with quarters, paper and gunpowder, and that had worked out well so far. Alice found coins everywhere, and it had been darkly fun to destroy arcade machines and parking meters.

She walked the remaining distance she was supposed to, and turned or her heels when a warning sign alerted her about the beginning of area eight. Alice wondered if it would take long to get dark, and she wondered what Claire was doing. She wanted Claire know she cared too.

For a moment, Alice rested her body against the frail fence and closed her eyes. She couldn't think about anything except for what she would have done, in a different life, if she had run into Claire changing clothes inside a tent.

**XXX**

"Damn it!" Claire hissed, sucking the blood from her thumb and eyeing the black Ford's motor with contempt. She threw the screwdriver unceremoniously at the floor and rubbed a ragged piece of cloth against the grease in her arm. She was hot and she already felt a rumble in her stomach. Claire calculated she had been working on the engine for two hours, and she had not figured out what was wrong yet.

Sweat ran down her spine. She rummaged her pocket and found an elastic band, which she used to tie her hair into a ponytail. It was fucking December, and it felt like somebody had opened the doors to Hell. Claire knew it was the desert, but for God's sake, where was the winter? It seemed like a distant dream the time she had snowball fights with Chris in the front yard of their house.

Claire thought about him and the other survivors. She missed them, but she owed this to them. If there was a slim chance, any grain of hope that their lives could be just a tiny bit easier, Claire wanted to make sure they would have it. Their grinning faces popped up into her mind – Chris, L.J, Betty, Chase, Mikey…

Suddenly a new face blurred her thoughts and took over everything. Tanned face, ruffled hair, green eyes… She wondered what her friends would think of her if Claire introduced Alice to the convoy one day. She grinned after admitting they would all hate the blonde. But they would eventually come around the sulking attitude and actually appreciate her comforting silence.

Claire was still deciding what she thought about Alice. She knew she was beautiful even under that layer of dust, and she knew the blonde's sultry voice just had a power over her that Claire could not explain. Alice was also a jerk. Alice was rude. Alice was awkwardly inappropriate with words. And still… Claire noticed she liked all these little perks.

She thought she would never feel safe out of the convoy. Claire sometimes feared in secret that everyone would die and she would be left alone with their cars and radios, but suddenly she had this new scenario forming inside her mind. She felt safe in that weird place with Alice. Not because she was strong or had a gun, but because Alice was… well, Alice. A beautiful stranger.

With a small grin tugging at her lips, Claire went back to the car engine. She leaned in the driver's seat and started the ignition, squinting as she tried to figure that noise one more time. It rattled before properly starting, and Claire definitively had a smile on her face when she understood she had been looking for the problem in the wrong place.

She slammed the hood and lay flat on her back with a small flashlight; Claire stuck herself under the car's front and pointed the beam of light near the bumper's interior, and there it was. She chuckled victoriously when she spotted a sharp piece of metal chewing the radiator's hose. It was totally ruined.

Claire crawled her way back and stood up to take the clipboard the soldier had given her. She bit the pencil's bottom as she considered what to order, and she decided on a few items. Wiping her forehead gently, Claire looked around the enormous hangar. She heard distant noises of clattering tools, but she could see no one there.

Someone came towards her after crossing the hangar's archway, but she could not see who it was. The white light outside was nearly blinding her, and she could only sort out the heavy boots against the cement floor. Only when she heard the soldier's voice she knew who it was.

"Finished there, ginger?"

Claire rolled her eyes as the brunette woman holding a machine gun stopped in front of her. Claire thought it was quite unnecessary, considering she was not much of a threat with a pocket flashlight and a screwdriver. "Yeah, there's a loose piece puncturing the rad-"

"Cut it out," the soldier made a gesture with her hand. Her dark uniform had the name Ocampo embroidered in white. "Have the list of supplies you need?"

Claire handed the clipboard to her and waited in silence as Ocampo read her quick handwriting. "What do you need a drill for?" she asked rather suspicious.

"To work with the sandpaper to scuff the metal's point."

"No can do, babe," the brunette handed it back to Claire with a humorless smile. "Find another way."

Claire looked indignantly at her. "You asked me what I needed, and I telling you!"

Ocampo chuckled, shaking her head. When she looked at Claire, her face was cold as stone. "That was an order, girl. And you better hurry, Chairman requested this car for tomorrow."

"What, are you suggesting that I scuff it manually?" Claire asked sarcastically, unable to stop herself. Her breath hitched on her throat when the soldier took one step closer and stood inches from her face.

"If that's what it takes," she said arrogantly, touching Claire's forehead with her gloved hand. She looked at the grease on her fingertips and scowled briefly. "Guess you'll need a shower after this."

Claire bit her lips and held her ground as Ocampo snickered at her. If she reacted, things would surely get ugly for her. She waited until the woman retreated and was finally gone to stomp her foot in frustration and let out a loud groan. Claire left the hangar for a moment, because she really needed a cigarette. The nicotine entered her system and soothed her briefly, until she heard Ocampo returning, barking orders along the way.

"Shit," Claire hissed, fussing about a place to hide her smoke without having to put it out. The soldier came into view and she had no option but to let it go and step on it.

Ocampo shoved the sandpaper and the hose into her hands and walked away. Without turning around, she called out. "And no smoke break, ginger. Next time I'll confiscate it."

"Bitch," Claire grunted with a scowl. She quickly fetched the burnt cigarette from the sand and hid it in her pocket. She dragged her feet towards the car, inhaled deeply and set up to work. It would probably take her another pair of hours to do that without a drill, and she didn't want to put Ocampo's threats to the test.

**XXX**

The curfew had rung about forty minutes ago, and Claire finally threw the ragged cloth against the car's hood with a sigh of relief. She was proud to reassure herself that it took more than a smartass bitch to bring a Redfield down. She pocketed her flashlight and hooked her cap on the belt loop of her jeans. Something told her to pick the screwdriver too, so Claire slid it surreptitiously inside her boot.

The walk to their camp wasn't long, but it was a little hard to keep a steady pace when she felt so hungry and thirsty. She hadn't eaten or drank anything the whole day, and Claire wasn't sure it was another of Umbrella's especial treats to employees or just an honest mistake.

When she entered wing seven, she spotted the tent and a fire already boiling two cans. Claire smiled weakly at the perspective of finally eating something. She approached the center of the camp to check what was on the menu when the noise of fabric whipping the air caught her attention.

Alice stood by the gap of the tent, pointing her gun directly to Claire's head. The blonde let out a loud breath as she rolled her eyes and lowered the weapon.

"Hi," Claire waved, walking towards the taller woman.

"What kept you?" Alice asked angrily, moving to eat up the remaining distance.

"I-" the redhead opened her mouth to explain, but she was too stunned with the visual to talk. Alice's nostrils were flaring, and she seemed to be out of her mind. Claire even had the impression that a flash of red tainted her green irises for a millisecond.

"I could've shot you!" Alice hissed, retreating towards the fire and sitting down with her back to the redhead. A little bewildered, Claire approached Alice and sat right in front of her.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked exasperated. "I had to fix a car using my hands instead of tools, and I had to finish it or I couldn't leave! I was forbidden to smoke, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty and I'm dirty!" she yelled furiously, her temper finally rising. "What's your fucking problem, Alice?"

The blonde's eyes were full of rage as Claire's words rang into her ears, but her countenance had changed completely. She was outraged, but Claire realized it wasn't about her.

Alice left her alone by the fire and returned from the tent with a bottle of water and a bucket. Claire didn't wait for ceremonies and finished the drink in a few large gulps. The blonde dipped her hand into the bucket and pulled back a soaking sponge; she didn't ask if she could, but she started to mop Claire's face as gently as possible.

Claire only waited, looking at Alice the whole time as the blonde cleaned her arms and fingernails. Alice, by her turn, did not spare a glance at the redhead, and the truth finally sunk in. Alice had been worried. Seriously worried, and she ended up by venting her frustration on the same person she was worried about.

It made a lot of ridiculous sense, and silently Claire appreciated her concern. She was about to voice it, when Alice's husky tone cut her. "You can finish cleaning there," she pointed the tent. "There's more water inside, and I got an extra blanket for you. You seemed uncomfortable last night."

Claire frowned but took the offer. She entered the tent and quickly removed her clothes hesitating at shutting the gap a little more carefully, because she really didn't know if she wanted to hide herself or if she wanted Alice to see her. She decided to draw both ends of the fabric a little closer and resumed her precarious shower, thinking that Alice had been in the tent while she slept.

She was delighted by the water temperature, and she let it run down her body, from head to toes. She had shoved the blankets and bags to a corner so that they wouldn't get wet.

Claire sighed and shook her head. Demanding the truth was too much to ask from Alice. She used her dirty top to dry her arms and legs and then she put her clothes back on, taking in the scent of tomatoes soup. Her stomach rumbled pleasurably.

Alice was poking the cans with a knife when she left the tent, just realizing that, like herself, the blonde was very clean compared to the day before. Claire sat down next to her and accepted her portion of soup; it tasted a lot better than she remembered and she let out a moan after the first spoon.

Alice cleared her throat and fumbled about a dirty sack that had been by her side. She produced a bottle of whiskey from there that made Claire's eyebrows hike up. Alice shrugged at her inquisitive look.

"We need to save water. And food," she added. "We don't have enough for two meals a day."

Claire didn't feel upset with the news; food rationing was always on the convoy's imaginary to-do list, and she was already used to it. Right now, she was focused on delighting her mind with the cigarette she had saved and the taste of alcohol after all those years.

"Where did you get this stuff, anyway? Water and blankets, I mean," she asked, savoring the first drag of smoke in her mouth. She had one quirked eyebrow at Alice's flush. "Alice, did you steal them?"

"Well, it was all lying there, unclaimed," she sheepishly replied. Claire laughed at her mannerisms and decided to push her luck a little.

"So, are you buying me a drink or what?"

Alice smirked and poured whiskey into the can they had eaten pork and beans last night. "This shit is strong, so be careful. You don't wanna –" Alice frowned when Claire downed it and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"What?" Claire asked a little breathless.

Alice shook her head grinning and served her some more. She completely lost track of time as they talked about stupid nothings sitting by the campfire. Both felt silent for a moment until the redhead decided to break it.

"So," Claire started conversationally as they both lay flat on their backs, watching the dark sky. "You're just… wandering?"

"No," Alice shook her head, adjusting her hat under it. "Just passing by Raccoon City and then I'm heading north."

"What's in there?"

"Alaska."

Claire propped herself up on her elbows with a frown. "What's in Alaska?"

"It's a heaven," Alice commented distractedly. "Free of infection."

"That's what you're doing, then?" Claire lay back down. "Looking for a place to start over?"

The blonde sighed as she tried to decide what was the best way to explain that to Claire. "I don't know what's in there, but it sounds like a plan. Besides, I found out about it on a notebook. My notebook."

"What notebook?"

"It's here in my pack. I found it among my stuff at the military base I was located when the outbreak happened. I don't remember anything before it, so I kept it to see if I could find something about me in there."

"Any luck?" Claire asked, turning on her side to look at Alice, who gave a weak smile.

"Not even close," the blonde whispered.

Claire didn't say anything in response. Not because she didn't know what to say, but because she realized Alice didn't really need it as the situation seemed bad enough without people vomiting pitiful words about things they ignored.

They shared one final cigarette and Claire finally let her sore body win. She stood up and looked at Alice.

"Are you coming?"

Alice shook her head. "Not now." The blonde diverted her eyes from Claire's disappointed face and pretended to poke the fire with a stick. She heard the redhead's footsteps retreating and finally disappearing inside the tent - that was when she let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. There was no way she could go in there. Her memory was still too fresh about what she had seen that morning.

She probably dozed off a couple of times, but a warm hand on her shoulder startled her just as if she had been in deep sleep. Alice found Claire's concerned blue eyes on her.

"You're clattering your teeth," Claire whispered, hugging the blanket around her own shoulders. "Come inside."

"I'm fine here," Alice said.

"It's fucking cold out here!" the redhead pulled her by the hand and found a little resistance. "C'mon, Alice! I know you're a badass already, no need to freeze to death just to prove a point!"

Alice smiled softly at Claire's playful tone in that sleepy voice. She stood up and followed the younger woman inside the tent. Claire had her flashlight on so Alice could locate her blankets; the blonde removed her boots and adjusted her lanky form under the covers, welcoming the warmth she had hated most of that day.

She sensed Claire squirming next to her, capturing every move of her legs and hands. Their shoulders brushed briefly as Claire seemed unable to find her most comfortable position.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"You have the whole tent to fumble," Alice whispered back. "A _roomy_ tent."

"Stop being so fucking annoying," Claire spat, tucking her hair behind her ears. It was impossible to see Alice's expression in the dark, and she had no idea if the blonde was being serious or not.

It was probably a late effect of the alcohol, but Claire reached out for the flashlight and pointed it at Alice. She squinted a little but said nothing as Claire rolled over on her belly, propping herself on her elbows with a rueful smile that Alice hadn't seen on her face all this time.

"What, Claire?" she asked in a bored voice, ankles crossed, hands under her head as she watched the dark ceiling of their tent. As she got no response, Alice sighed and turned to face her. Claire pierced her with her blue eyes, and Alice saw a different light there.

Claire bit her bottom lip and then softly released it, letting out a deep sigh that Alice felt on her cheek. The redhead reached over and softly entangled her fingers with Alice's askew hair. "God," she whispered, shaking her head in disbelief. "You're so…"

Alice lurched forwards and pulled Claire to her with a hand in the back of her neck, locking their lips into a desperate kiss. She sat up on the blanket as the flashlight rolled over on the floor, and Claire climbed on top of her, straddling her hips without hesitating for a second. Alice laced her red hair between her fingers and brought Claire closer.

Claire didn't know if she was hurting Alice by pulling her hair like that, but she knew the blonde would have stopped her in case she didn't like it. She groaned when Alice's hands grabbed her ass, and she was breathless by the time her rough hands rubbed her breasts. Alice might be just oblivious to the amount of strength she was using or she simply did things that way.

If it had been anyone else, Claire was sure she would've already kicked them out of her bed by now. But it was Alice, and her body apparently would bend for her in many ways. She firmly held onto Alice's arms when she felt the blonde working the zipper of her pants.

Alice unceremoniously shoved Claire back to the pile of blankets and leaned over her, yanking her jeans off and diving one last time for a raspy kiss. Claire's chest heaved quickly as she pulled the blonde to her impatiently, grasping the short hair on the back of Alice's head and earning a painful kiss on her neck for it.

She involuntarily moaned Alice's name when her hands pulled her underwear aside and touched her exactly where she wanted. Claire whimpered when the blonde ended the contact. She looked up with a pleading expression, ready to beg if that was what it would take. Alice sucked in two fingers and made her hand slid past Claire's hips and all the way between her legs.

Claire almost slapped her when she didn't do anything. Alice stared fiercely down at her. "Look at me," she huskily ordered, pushing her own hip against her hand. Claire's let out a ragged, shaky breath as she closed her eyes at the wonderful sensation. "Look at me, Claire," Alice urged again with a gentle whisper.

Claire obeyed gasping for air at every thrust, and she kept her focus on those damn green orbs as much as she could while Alice moved inside and out of her, slowly at first, roughly at the end, when Claire shut her eyes closed and screamed Alice's name against the fabric of the blonde's shirt, biting at her shoulder and holding onto her for dear life.

Alice rolled to her side of the tent before Claire's legs had stopped trembling. The redhead stretched one arm, trying to hold Alice's hand in the dark, but she didn't find the blonde within her reach. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply, sensing her heart go back to normal pace as well as her breathing. Exhausted, Claire finally let sleep take over.

"Good night, Alice."

Alice clicked the flashlight off and stared deeply into the dark canvas above their heads as she rested on her back. Her heart thumped hard against her ribcase, and she felt a light trail of sweat rolling down her spine. She heard Claire's breathing slowing down gradually until she soundlessly fell asleep.

Alice folded one blanket to use as a pillow and covered Claire's legs with the extra one she had been laying on before. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out the redhead's peaceful profile. Alice had no idea how old Claire was, but she looked a lot younger when she was sleeping.

"Night, Claire," she whispered, resting her head on the blanket and finally drifting off.

**XXX**

Claire narrowed her eyes at the light and lifted her arm to protect them from the sudden clarity. She felt her naked legs entangled with the blankets, and she closed her eyes as a shy smile crisped her sore lips. Claire looked to her left expecting to find Alice next to her, but all she saw was a folded blanket with the fresh mould of the blonde's head.

Claire sparred and fussed about the tent in search of her clothes. Everything had been thrown away recklessly, and it took her about ten minutes to locate her underwear shoved in between the folds of her blankets. "Damn you, Alice," Claire whispered under her breath, amused with the blonde's powerful charge last night.

She left the tent and was greeted by another sunny morning. Claire put on her aviators and finished lacing her boots while her eyes searched for the blonde. But she was nowhere to be seen.

"Alice?" Claire called out. There was no answer. She had an odd sensation that she wouldn't like the outcome of their encounter the night before. Shaking her head in disbelief, Claire found eggs and coffee by the fire. The portion was half the size of what they had the other morning, and she knew Alice had used only one can of food for both of them.

Claire shrugged and dug into it; her body accepted it gladly even though the coffee tasted horribly and a lot worse than the cappuccino. When she finished, Claire decided she had energy enough to go search for Alice. The curfew interrupted her plans, though, and she understood Alice was not coming until night.

Frustrated, Claire pocketed her flashlight, the screwdriver and was about to fetch the pack of Marlboros, but failed at finding them. She put her hands on her hips, feeling anger boiling in her once content stomach. "So you give me your extra blanket and take my cigarettes," she hissed. "Fuck you, Alice!"

Hot tempered, Claire stormed away from the camp, longing to have hunger and thirsty to distract her from the murderous thoughts she was having towards Alice for thinking she could make decisions for them both. When Claire saw soldier Ocampo lighting a cigarette and puffing a cloud of smoke very slowly with her dark eyes locked on her, the redhead was sure a very shitty day was just about to start.

**XXX**

Alice narrowed her eyes and removed her hat. She fanned her face, watching the distant house over the fence in the desert. This time she was sure she had heard crows after a dry gunshot coming from there.

For the rest of the day nothing else happened besides a shy breeze that ruffled her hair even more. As the sky turned into the usual mass of black nothingness, Alice tucked her gun back into her leather belt and fished a cigarette out of her pocket. Leaning her back against a stake, she carefully dragged the smoke to her lungs and looked at the hangars that stood far away from where she was.

The mere thought of kissing Claire while she slept seemed ridiculous to Alice. _She _was being ridiculous and overreacting about the whole thing., because Claire was not… She sighed, irritated with her own rant about something really simple. They were nothing. It wasn't anything other than a nice laid in a crappy world.

Alice tried no to think that for a while she hovered over Claire that morning, watching her lips, wanting to taste them one more time. She was glad she hadn't permitted herself to do it, and she was relieved that she had not done such stupidity. Kisses were for lovers. And that wasn't what they were.

They were nothing.

Suddenly it sounded like a very heavy word, even for her.

Alice followed the curfew and made her way back from her stance, but she sneaked in the darkness of a hangar just like she had done last night. It had been a lucky shot, and it was good she had no morals anymore, because Alice had accidentally ran into Umbrella's deposit of supplies.

That morning she had shoved her small sack into the waistband of her jeans with the intention of coming back to the camp with water, food and cigarettes for Claire. For them. For her. She shook her head; she wasn't breathing and walking up until now because she put other people first, and it wasn't Claire that was going to change that.

She wasn't, even though she stood by the campfire, arms folded, a defiant light in her blue eyes and a sort of aura around her red hair that made her the most beautiful thing Alice had ever seen.

Claire waited for Alice as she approached their camp, and she seemed downright pissed. Alice carefully drew closer, a blank expression covering her face as she desperately tried to ignore the yank she felt in her heart at the sight of Claire Redfield.

"You'd better come up with an excellent excuse, Alice," the redhead spat before she could say anything. The look of confusion on the blonde's face just drove Claire crazier. "Don't look at me like that, you know what I'm talking about!"

Alice sighed and produced the sack full of supplies. She threw one pack of Marlboros at Claire, who caught it despite her apparent blinding rage. "It looks like you could use some," Alice smirked.

Claire narrowed her eyes. "Of course I do!" she said fuming. "You left with them all this morning!"

It was Alice's turn to look pissed. "What are _you_ talking about? I took one and left the other for you next to the frying pan!"

Claire frowned, taking some time to process it. The picture of soldier Ocampo smoking flashed past her mind. She closed her eyes, angry with herself. "That bitch!" she hissed, and looked at Alice. "There was nothing there. Someone took it on purpose. I'm sorry."

Alice didn't seem to mind. "I could kill her for you," she suggested with mirth in her green eyes.

Claire chuckled. "I don't know why, but that picture actually is tuning me on."

Alice took one step forward and kissed her.

**XXX**

Time usually had a sluggish pace in Claire's opinion. Since the outbreak, it felt like seconds crawled their way to the next one, and hours were only countless measures that had no longer importance. However, it had changed drastically once she lowered her defenses for good and allowed Alice into her personal space.

Days went past so quickly that she started to dread the moment they would have to leave the facility and their worlds would no longer be resumed to a tent, hands and raspy breaths. She found comfort in Alice's silence, and she found her place in her hands, like she belonged to Alice since ever.

Then the final, fateful day arrived. Alice was even quieter than usual, and Claire was edgy with the tension. It was the end of December. It was their December, no matter what happened after that. They were silently working on putting the camp down, throwing a few remaining supplies into the duffel bags. Alice was dismantling the tent when she felt her blood tingle.

It wasn't the first time that the weird sensation took over her, but she had no idea what it was. Claire touched her shoulder to offer a hand with the tent, and instinctively Alice jerked her away. Claire looked hurt, but it quickly developed to fury when she looked at Alice in the eyes.

"You're such a freak," she snarled, not sure if she really meant to hurt Alice or just get attention.

The word rang a bell into Alice's subconscious mind, and a dormant anger erupted into her body. She narrowed her eyes and projected herself against Claire, who felt the threat and responded with a hard punch on Alice's face. Blood spilled on the front of her shirt as she gapped at Claire, stunned. Not mad, but surprised with her reaction.

"You sure can punch," she commented, cleaning her bleeding lip in her sleeve. Claire seemed surprised, too. She had no idea where that came from. Alice thought she was going to start apologizing, when a stronger tingle got her alert. "Don't," she whispered, unlocking her gun as she watched the wide desert beyond the fence. A low but gradual rumble seemed to approach them from far.

Claire gasped when what looked like a sandstorm made its way towards them. "Alice, what-?"

"I knew it," the blonde hissed, watching the greyish turmoil in the yellow sand transform itself into a mass of undead. They seemed out of control, and it took her a moment to perceive a distinct body running with them. Then the cries told her the girl was not running with them; she was running _from_ them.

Alice didn't even have time to think. She felt Claire's hands trying to stop her, but she had already made up her mind. The impulse lifted her body amazingly high and she lost her shirt to Claire along the way. She overpassed the fence, shooting the creatures with massive precision.

Claire stood behind, shaking the fence in despair as she held Alice's dirty shirt. "Alice, _no_!"

But Alice was running towards them with such speed that she felt like being inside an unfamiliar body. In a few seconds she had hit the closest undead, grabbed the girl around the waist and spun on her heels to get back to the fence. She didn't have time to think about how high the edge really was; she lifted the girl in her arms and hoped she'd climb the rest of it on her own.

As she kept firing against the approaching creatures, Alice briefly saw Claire helping the girl on the other side. They were too close now, and she didn't have much space to run and jump again. The blonde went for the obvious, and grabbed the fence, adjusting the tips of her boots in the small gaps and began to make her way up.

She was almost on the top when a creature took hold of her leg. Claire stuck her hand through the wires and pierced its eye with a screwdriver. Alice quickly passed her leg over the fence and jumped.


	4. Without you

**N/A: Oooh, cliffhanger much? Thank you all for the feedback – they're awesome! You guys ROCK! (and I don't know why I thanked for the cookies… I'm such a dork… Thanks for the brownies! =))**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own Resident Evil, Claire, Alice, Jill and blah blah blah. But you already know it.**

**Find me on tumblr: follow-that-convoy**

**Find the Challenger too: keepcalmandshipclairice**

**4. Without you**

Alice withdrew from the fence as quickly as possible. The undead kept pressing against it, rotten fingers wiggling through the gaps on the wires. Claire pulled her by the arm as they both stared speechless at the amount of creatures gnarling and snapping their jaws at the possible meal on the other side of the fence.

"We have to go," Alice said dryly, her voice lacking any kind of emotion. She didn't want to meet up with Claire's and the girl's frowns. Yes, something wrong was happening to her, and no, she had no idea what it was nor felt compelled to talk about it.

She collected her hat from the ground, dusted off the sand and placed it on her head again. Alice had only a few bullets in the magazine, so she picked up one of the tent's pole and started to walk away. Umbrella's people would not take long to show up, and she didn't have a good feeling about it. Why was there a human in the middle of a horde of undead?

Alice heard the other two follow her. She didn't look back and kept leading the way. Once they made a left turn to the main street of the compound, the click of several guns greeted the trio. There were seven of them, meaning seven machine guns pointed at their heads. One of them took a step forward and removed their helmet, being quickly followed by the other six.

Claire's stomach sunk when she saw Ocampo's evil smirk.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" she asked.

Alice had no idea if she would really be able to take the seven soldiers down without attracting others and giving their position away. "I came to reclaim a cigarette you stole this morning."

The soldier shook her head slowly. She glared at the blonde intently. "I know you."

Ocampo aimed her gun directly into Alice's chest. "You're that freak, aren't you?"

She never saw the pole that hit her face with the strength of ten men. Claire's jaw dropped as she watched Alice jump and spin her body in the air, distributing kicks on the other soldiers' faces just as if she had done that her entire life. She moved and acted weightlessly, like the choreography of an action movie.

And by the way they stood motionless on the ground, it looked like she had… killed them. Claire did not waste her time trying to figure that out; she held the girl's arm and pulled her closer, trying to look reassuring at her. The young blonde couldn't be older than fifteen, and the redhead knew she might be terrified.

Claire almost flinched at Alice's expression when she finally turned back. Her green eyes were drenched with anger, and her full lips were now reduced to a thin line. "You've been on the hangars," the blonde briefly looked at her. "Any idea where your car might be?"

"Hangar three," Claire said slowly, registering too that it was far down the main aisle, almost at the gates. "But I doubt we can make it without being seen."

"Guess we'll have to test that theory," Alice murmured. "Keep that screwdriver at ready and look out for the girl."

Claire assumed there was not much to argue about that. She wasn't up for staying a second longer in that creepy facility, but she wasn't exactly eager to follow Alice's lead towards their certain damnation. She felt the girl squeezing her hand, and the redhead knew she had to give it a shot for her.

The three of them moved stealthily together, bordering the hangars. Twice Alice had shoved them into the gap between hangars when she thought someone was going to show up, and the third time got Claire slightly flustered.

"Mind being careful?" she hissed, but Alice's hand silenced her. The redhead rolled her eyes, but it surprised her when a knocked out soldier fell at their feet after a loud snap. She had no idea if Alice had done that with the pole or with her foot, but it had worked just fine. She swallowed hard and pulled the girl with her as Alice beckoned them to keep moving.

It took them about ten minutes to reach hangar three, but it felt like eternity, especially when there were incidents. Claire was now sure that Alice was able to snap necks with a kick and, as terrifying as it looked, at least she knew they wouldn't need guns. Alice moved like a silent walking weapon.

Claire and the girl hid in the gap between hangars three and four before Alice pushed them. The older woman almost laughed at their reaction, but she needed to concentrate if she wanted to take them out alive. She pressed her ear against the hangar's metal wall and whispered "Don't breathe."

She gathered voices and booming steps inside, and she didn't know why all of a sudden her hearing seemed so accurate. "There are eight soldiers in the hangar. You'll get in using the backdoor while I distract them." Claire had an apprehensive look on her face that kept her rooted on her spot. "Get in the Hummer and keep the girl down on the back seat. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out," she quoted Wesker.

The memory of the scary man seemed to bring back some resolve into Claire, because she nodded and guided the girl down the small corridor, looking back at Alice for a moment. Alice hushed them away and stepped forward the hangar's main entrance.

It was a matter of seconds before all the soldiers noticed the intruder and pointed their rifles at her. Alice had a smirk on her face when she lowered the pole and held up her arms, noticing flashes of red and blond at the back of the place. The yellow Hummer was only a few feet behind the barricade of Umbrella's soldiers, and she hoped they would be discreet enough to climb up the vehicle without being spotted; Alice wasn't sure if she could keep them safe with the soldiers between her and the other two.

"State business or I'll shoot," one of the man took point, yelling as if she stood a mile from him. "I'm not going to say it twice!"

"Well, I need a car to get the hell out of here," Alice said, her husky voice sounding too calm for the situation. Looking over the soldiers very subtly, she saw Claire and the girl sneaking close the distance from the back of the hangar to the Hummer.

"You do realize there are eight of us here, right?" the soldier mocked her, lowering his weapon upon realizing the seemingly harmless woman had no clue of who they were. Maybe she was one of the countless testing subjects that managed to escape, and the order was to simply terminate them.

"Yeah, I can count," Alice retorted, letting out a sigh of relief when Claire and the girl entered the car. "So, about that transportation issue… Will you nicely step aside or I'll have to take care of you the hard way?"

"In your dreams, blondie," the soldier gnarled and gestured the men to shoot.

Alice felt like time had slowed down for her, but she knew it wasn't possible. She pulled the pole up from the ground with a kick, sending it spinning towards the soldiers. Those who didn't get hit were treated with her bullets. She finally met Claire's eyes and beckoned her forward.

As the vehicle hummed into life, a few soldiers tried to get up, but Alice knocked them out with a few punches and had Claire's help as she hit the gas pedal and ran over the last one, who was ready to shoot Alice.

Alice nodded briefly at the redhead and squatted to collect two of the riffles. She searched the pockets of their suits and took as much ammo as she could, when Claire honked to get her attention. Alice rolled her eyes when she felt the cold barrel touch the back of her head.

"Any last words before I blow up your brains?" It was Ocampo. That woman was becoming such a pain in the ass.

"C'mon! Again?" Alice complained, and she had a second to look at Claire before chaos started. The redhead seemed desperate, and before she decided to act stupid and get out of the car, Alice spun on her knees, firing at the soldiers Ocampo brought with her.

The woman rolled down just in time, and then it was just her and Alice standing, facing and pointing rifles at each other. "Put your gun down," the brunette ordered. "I have a few more guys coming in about thirty seconds, and I'm sure you don't wanna be alive when they take hold of that pretty ass over there," she hoisted her chin to indicate Claire in the Hummer.

Hot anger boiled inside Alice, and everything seemed a lot clearer to her despite the fact that rage was blinding her and affecting her judgment. She was faster, she could hear better and her reflexes were a hundred percent improved, which meant she could take down as many soldiers as she needed. Ocampo had threatened the wrong redhead.

"Over my dead body," she hissed at the brunette, and when about forty soldiers showed up, something emanated like a blast from her mind, cracking the cement floor and throwing every soldier backwards with the strength of an explosion. It felt like her body had naturally reacted the second she realized there was little time to shoot them all.

With a headache out of proportion, Alice stumbled towards the Hummer and hopped in, Claire trying to pull her up with shaking hands.

"Crap! Are you okay?" Claire whispered at the verge of tears, trying to take a look at the small dashes on Alice's eyebrow line.

"We don't have time for this," Alice said, closing her eyes as she rested her head on her window, barely able to talk in between ragged breaths. "You need to take us out, Claire."

She remembered the tires screeching and Claire ordering them to hold on. The redhead crashed the entrance gates and the alarms were set up. About five black cars gave chase, but Alice did not relent even though she felt like it was the end of the line for her. She perched herself in the window and shot them. She shot them all, and when they hit the highway, Alice finally collapsed.

**XXX**

"Alice? Alice, wake up."

She stirred painfully, opening her eyes to meet blurry shades of red, and as everything came back to focus, she found worried blue eyes on her. Claire's face hovered a few inches from hers, and she had one hand on the blonde's dirty cheek.

Claire withdrew when Alice sat up. The older woman noticed she was on the back seat of the Hummer. The blonde girl had taken the passenger seat and looked at her with curious eyes. Alice ignored her and looked at Claire.

"Where are we?"

"Halfway to Vegas," Claire said promptly. "We made a stop to fuel the Hummer and try to find supplies. There's an abandoned gas station over there."

Alice took in their surroundings and then jumped out of the car, pulling the rifle strap over her shoulder. The girl and Claire followed her, again with those curious eyes burning holes on the back of her head. "What happened to the fuel Wesker gave us?" the blonde inquired, just remembering they should have a spare gallon.

"They took it," Claire explained. "I'm sure that their intention was to never let us out again."

"You're right."

Alice and Claire turned their heads. It was the first time the girl had spoken without being asked anything. Claire had made a few attempts to start conversation, but she had been quite evasive. It almost felt like trying to talk to a younger version of Alice, and that was quite frustrating.

"What do you know about it?" Alice asked rather crossly. Claire elbowed her and moved forwards with a small smile, trying not to scare the girl even more.

"Why don't we sit inside and you can explain everything better to us? We're going to help you."

The blonde girl spared a nervous glance at Alice and then looked back at Claire, noticing the redhead sounded sincere. "Okay."

The three of them entered the small convenience store and found it absolutely empty, except for a few gummy bears that the girl took with eager eyes. The place was slightly cooler than outside, and Claire joined the blonde girl as she sat atop the counter to eat.

"So, what's your story?" Alice heard Claire ask as she walked among the aisles of empty shelves.

"I don't remember much from… before," the girl said. "I remember my family and I were trying to escape the city, when my dad decided to stop at a K-Mart store to buy water and food. After that, I woke up inside a laboratory. They were… testing stuff, and I only know that when something went wrong, they used the subjects to feed those monsters outside."

"How did you get away?"

"It was my turn to be their lab rat, and I don't know… Something strong, like, adrenaline or whatever… I kicked the guard's crotch and ran."

Alice listened intently, but she was a little surprised that Claire seemed calm about it. She was indignant, of course, but she wasn't acting as if she had no idea Umbrella was such a vicious corporation. "Whenever you feel like joining us, I wanna say something too," Claire called out.

Rolling her eyes, Alice approached them. "What?"

"I belong to a convoy," the redhead slowly started to explain. "We send transmissions on the emergency frequency, and we've been collecting survivors since the outbreak. We're like a big family. Some of my friends actually worked for Umbrella, and there were rumors that they were using people for tests even before the outbreak. I volunteered to… infiltrate. The more we knew about Umbrella, the safer we'd be. Now I have this place to go back to. You can come with us," she said gently to the girl, and suddenly she locked her eyes with Alice's.

"So you applied for the job even though you knew all that?" the blonde asked Claire, who nodded, slightly flattered. "That's dumb," Alice spat. She felt uneasy with the sudden change in her body and the lack of memories to understand them. If the girl had no recollections, it was very possible that her own blanks were results of Umbrella's actions.

"Ocampo seemed to know you," Claire said harshly for being called dumb. "She called you a freak."

Alice felt the word hit her once again like a bullet, but she could not blame Claire for using it. She _was_ a freak. And an asshole.

"Well, _that_ woman was dumb," the blonde girl said. "She has super powers and that is super cool." She shrugged when Alice pierced her with her green eyes. "You might not like it, but it's awesome. I thought I was gonna die in the desert, and you simply jumped over that fence and carried me like… Then you blasted the floor. That was… wow!"

Claire chuckled at Alice's bemused expression. Apparently she got a new fan. "You don't remember your name, do you?" the redhead asked the girl, amazed how she sounded like a normal teenager even though she had just been rescued from hell.

"No," she shook her blond head, shoving more candy into her mouth. "But the soldiers referred to me and my parents as K-Mart people."

Claire shook her head, torn between laughter and exasperation, but the girl seemed to take it well. Alice decided she should probably introduce herself properly. "Nice to meet you, K-Mart. I'm Alice," she stretched a hand, noticing she had a bracelet on her right wrist.

"I made it for you while you slept. Like a thank you gift for saving me," she explained, smiling at the nickname. She had used a stripe of her ruined jeans to make both Claire and Alice bracelets; she drew a smiley face on them using a pen she found in the glove compartment of the Hummer.

"Well, you don't need to thank me," Alice said awkwardly, avoiding Claire's playful eyes. She hated to be read that well, and the redhead had mastered the art in a short period of time. "You should thank Miss Pretty Ass over there."

It was Claire's turn to flush as the girl chuckled at their interaction. "Stop being such a pig, Alice," she grunted, wanting to laugh but unwilling to let Alice win.

"I'm just saying," she shrugged with a smirk. She felt lighter when she realized she had not scared them. "I'm quoting Ocampo."

"_She_ said that?"

"I think she was into you," Alice said pointedly, glaring at Claire with a grin. Claire tilted her head for K-Mart to go outside.

"Adult talk, sorry," the redhead patted her shoulder. K-Mart rolled her eyes and left, dragging her feet towards the Hummer. "Are you jealous?" she asked.

"Me?" Alice grinned. "No way," she drew closer, pinning Claire to the counter as she leaned in using both arms to keep the redhead on her spot. "I'm just remembering you that I actually killed her."

Claire had not expected all the flirting and insinuation, just as she had not expected to be pulled up over the counter with Alice between her legs. "What are you doing, K-Mart's outside-"

"And we're here," Alice whispered in her ear.

**XXX**

Claire had no idea why Alice had insisted on driving. She watched the blonde concentrated on the road as K-Mart slept between them, her head resting against Claire's shoulder. They had left the gas station about three hours later, and she still remembered how they almost got caught by K-Mart, who got sick of waiting in the car.

Claire had adjusted her shirt and zipped up her pants, but she knew it was too late. To her utter disbelief, K-Mart simply frowned at them and rolled her eyes, mumbling something about horny people. Claire fixed her messy hair and clasped her bra straps back together, and slid off the counter with her cheeks burning. Alice remained silent, and just followed her to the Hummer.

"Why are you going back?" Claire suddenly frowned, reading the rusty signs indicating Vegas was the other way. "Alice, what are you doing?"

"I have to make a quick stop at Raccoon City."

"Are you trying to get us killed?"

"No. Do I ever?"

Claire rolled her eyes with impatience; Alice could be such a jerk in the most inappropriate situations. She decided to trust the blonde; she had saved their asses after all, and she deserved at least that. The detour ate up about four hours of the day, and by the time they had arrived, it was getting dark in the city.

It was desert as Alice had expected it to be. The small post that had recruited them was locked and there was no one watching it. "Stay in the car," Alice whispered, loading the rifle and jumping out of the Hummer. With the flashlight Claire had salvaged, she sneaked in and destroyed the padlock with one small command of her mind.

She liked it, but the headache did not pay off entirely. The office was empty and had the smell of a room that had not seen sunlight or received clear oxygen in days. Alice scavenged the drawers, the computer's HD, and found nothing. The deposit next to it was her next target. She smiled wolfishly when the beam of light fell over the BMW. She kicked the gate and it simply fell on the gravel for her.

She pulled the motorcycle towards the Hummer and stopped beside the passenger seat. Alice's hands fumbled about a few wires as she held the flashlight between her teeth. The BMW roared softly when she connected the right circuits.

"You're an example for children," Claire softly commented.

"Don't judge me."

"That was a compliment."

Alice felt her resolve falter at the sight of Claire's sweet smile. She thought it would be easier, but God, how she had been wrong… She lowered her eyes and gruffly emptied her pockets and the sack she had been carrying. She gave her notebook to K-Mart, as well as water and food.

She felt Claire's burning gaze on her. Alice didn't want to look back, but she did it just the same. Her blue eyes were wet, and she was fighting not to cry. The blonde gave her four packs of cigarettes.

"You should have said it was a goodbye fuck," Claire whispered with a broken voice, making sure K-Mart was distracted with the items Alice passed over to her. "I'd make it last longer if I'd known it would be the last time."

The blonde sighed, approaching the window and restraining from kissing the redhead in front of the girl. "C'mon, Claire," she softly murmured. "I don't do happy families."

"What's happy about anything, anyway?" Claire let out a wet chuckle, looking away from Alice. "It's just… I thought you… Forget it." She felt really stupid now for assuming that Alice would join her and they'd be together leading a convoy against the world.

"You have to go back to them. I'm sure they need you."

"Don't be such a hypocrite, Alice," Claire spat, getting angry at her shitty concern about a group of people she couldn't care less. "I need you, and yet that won't keep you from leaving me! So stop making excuses and go away. You have the whole world for yourself to sulk and brood as much as you want!"

"You're not coming?" K-Mart asked, popping out of the window. Alice swallowed hard and shook her head. She was hating all the disappointment she was causing, and that was the reason why she didn't get involved with people anymore. She had been stupid for breaking that rule with Claire. It was way easier to hate her.

"Gather your convoy and head to Alaska," Alice said to Claire, but the redhead wasn't looking at her anymore. "She'll need your help," she added to K-Mart, who sighed deeply and then conceded a short nod. "This is not goodbye," Alice whispered, touching Claire's shoulder.

Claire closed her eyes and pulled away from Alice's touch, changing to the driver seat. "C'mon, K-Mart," she beckoned the girl to sit next to her. "We have a long roadtrip ahead."

The girl waved at Alice, but Claire didn't look back, not even once. The yellow Hummer became a distant blur and its roaring engine finally faded away, leaving Alice behind, boots rooted on the gravel when all she wanted was to jump on the BMW and follow them.

She shook her head and returned to the office. Alice got out from her pocket small devices she had stolen from the supply hangar, and she planted them by the table where Wesker had sat a month ago. It was because of Umbrella that she didn't know who she was, and she was going to make sure they didn't forget what she had become.

Alice hoped in the motorcycle and accelerated. She was half a mile from the office when the explosion sent Umbrella's quarters to pieces in the air, tainting the dark sky with fire.

**XXX**

"K! Little help over here?"

K-Mart looked up and saw Chris Redfield on top of the tanker, his heavy military boots booming against the metal. She remembered her promise to help him with the wires days ago when they arrived at their new settlement, but right now she didn't really feel like collecting them from broken cars and trucks.

The teen kept studying the notebook, trying to convince Claire to take a look at it, and right now she planned on giving it another try. She left her cool shadow in the motel's porch and walked to meet up with Chris. He was a lot taller than her, and stronger too, but she found him rather cute when he was not bossing her around with the chores.

It had been about five months since Claire had returned to the convoy with her, and K-Mart had actually expected a larger group to welcome them. Claire had swallowed her tears and removed her cap when Chris told her L.J and Betty had been bitten; the redhead had practiced a lot of struggling with her emotions during their road trip. It had been four days pretending she was okay, when it was clear to K-Mart she wasn't.

The news of two casualties seemed to take its toll on Claire. She retreated herself from the small group and only K-Mart was brave enough to stay around her, especially at night. They used to share the Hummer to sleep, and since everyone preferred to stay in cars, Chris had suggested they made secure grates to the vehicles. Some places they had been were even hotter than Nevada, and it was impossible to sleep with the windows rolled up.

"Found any supplies in there?" Chris asked, squinting as he looked at the motel.

"Mikey and I have searched every drawer," she shook her head. "Someone got here first and ran it dry."

Chris grunted in understanding and helped K-Mart come up the tanker climbing the rusty stair. He squatted and kept staring at the small circle around their campfire. He saw a few people working on setting up security poles with cameras while others simply waited with their guns. It was a bitch living like that.

Chris and Claire had tried to share this burden only with adults, but Claire's concerning apathy was something that caught even the younger off guard. Chris wasn't good with words, and he didn't know how to be sweet like Claire. Everyone seemed to be edgy as they watched the visible surrender in their leader's face.

"How's she doing?" Chris asked quietly.

K-Mart sighed. "She's… hanging in there."

They both spotted Claire walking among their small group, barely reattributing their smiles. She wore her aviators, and it was hard to tell which way she was actually looking at.

"We need to talk to her," Chris muttered. "I can't handle all these people alone."

"I'm on it," K-Mart nodded, hoping he would forget about the job she had promised to do.

"I'll ask Mikey to instead," Chris winked at her, almost as if he had read her mind, and she tried to look innocent. K-Mart made her way down the tanker and walked towards the motel, which was where she had seen Claire head to.

The interior of the ruined construction was dark and cool. K-Mart easily pin pointed the redhead sitting by a dirty couch. She approached the piece of wretched furniture, wondering if the mustiness was not bothering Claire at all.

"Have you tried to call her on the radio?" K-Mart asked slowly, sitting on the dusty floor in front of Claire. The redhead ignored the teen, but it was obvious she was listening. The change in her expression was loud and clear. "Have you considered moving to Alaska with the convoy? What if you find her there?"

"I don't want to see her ever again, K-Mart," Claire said, her hoarse voice finally ripping through the air. "I just want to forget she ever existed."

"Well, you can lie to me as much as you want, but you know that's not true," K-Mart said vehemently. "I still hear you call her in your sleep, and whatever it is that happened between you-"

"It's over," Claire interrupted her. She stood up and left the girl alone, shaking her head in disbelief as she stomped her way out of the motel. It was too much for her that a fifteen year old could reason a lot better than she could.

**XXX**

"Pretty pot for a pretty lady."

Claire had a doubtful grin when she looked up and found Mikey staring down at her, wiggling a joint before her eyes. As she took it, he laid down next to her on the ground, facing the fire that silently warmed their legs. It was late night, and everyone else had already retired to their cars.

"You're bullshitting me," Claire whispered, looking intently at the small cigarette he had given her. "Mikey, I could marry you."

He gave her a rueful smile. "I don't know why you won't," he whispered back, watching the fire and then looking back at Claire.

The redhead sighed as she took in his features. Tan skin, greenish eyes, blond unruly hair… The only difference was the smile. Mikey's was usually tender and caring, meanwhile _hers_… Claire could not even think about that smirk.

"Mikey, we've been on and on about that," she said, staring straight into his eyes.

"I know what you're gonna say," Mikey said softly. "I just wanted you to realize that, no matter how much crappier life's gonna be, I'll be always by your side."

"Don't be silly," Claire chuckled, but then she became serious again. She didn't think other people's feelings were funny or unimportant. "Seriously, Mikey… We've been in this convoy for over three years, and my answer has been the same from the start."

"So you're saying this is never gonna happen?"

"I'm just refraining from hurting you, trust me," she grunted, pressing the joint against her lips as she lit it. The first drag felt just like heaven.

"Maybe I don't care if I get hurt. It's the end of the fucking world, Claire. There are other more terrifying things out there."

It was the first time Mikey spoke with that much purpose in his voice, and Claire frowned slightly as she passed the joint to him. "What are you saying?"

"I can't stand seeing you hurt because of… whoever. Not when I know I can… try to make it less difficult. Maybe even a little better. As a leader, you should know everyone deserves a shot, sweetheart."

With that, Mikey stood up, dusted the back of his cargo pants and left her by the fire with her thoughts. Claire sighed deeply and closed her eyes. It had been days since she last smoked a goddamned cigarette, but she could always count on Mikey to go to Hell's length to find some for her.

She stayed there, enjoying the sensation that slowly seized her disturbed thoughts and transformed them into emptiness. Claire stood up after an hour and walked away from the fire.

She was the last one to go to bed like she did every night, except that this time Claire went past the yellow Hummer after checking on K-Mart. The redhead knocked the hood of a U-Haul truck. Mikey stared intently at her after waking up startled, thudding his head painfully against the car's roof.

Claire didn't say anything as she climbed up the driver seat and joined him in the cargo area of the vehicle.

"What are you doing, sweetheart?" he whispered, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear.

"Giving you a shot," Claire whispered back.

**XXX**

"Come on, wake _up_!"

"Do you think she's… alive?"

"I didn't hit her that hard, we were not even that fast-"

"You were kind of fast-"

"Fine, I get it!"

The arguing voices started to grow loud in her mind as she slowly regained consciousness. She raised one hand and touched the exact spot where a throbbing pain had started in her head, using the other to lift her weight from the ground.

"Look, she got up!"

Alice squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them as she managed to sit. Automatically she went for her rifle, but the blonde realized she didn't have it with her anymore. Despite the pain, she stood up on her feet, staring at the two strangers with her hands in fists.

"Whoa there!" a blue eyed woman with short, dark hair took a step back, pulling a little freckled girl behind her. "Easy, woman! I have a kid here!"

Alice took in her surroundings; she had been sprawled over a vast area covered in dead grass, and she actually remembered that place on daylight… She had been walking during the day and now, as she stood by the foot of a hill with the strangers, Alice remembered she had had a lot to drink before trying to cross to the other side of the highway to Oregon. There was light and a honk, too.

"You ran over me," she huskily stated to the brunette, spotting a car parked nearby.

The woman seemed nervous but there was a lot of defiance in her expression too. Of course she was relieved she hadn't killed a person – because she usually got a kick out of hitting undead – but the blonde's brutal manners could jeopardize their safety.

"It wasn't on purpose!" she defended herself. "Why the fuck would you cross the road at this hour?"

Three months ago, Alice had fallen asleep on a small field, and not for the first time, she woke up startled with a loud crashing noise. Instead of small rocks, the BMW stood dismantled on the ground, and quickly she realized it had been her telekinesis striking again.

She had just recently discovered this enhanced new power – she could move objects with her mind without having to destroy them. However, it was clear she could not control the destruction effect if she were sleeping.

She had dreamed about Claire that night.

With a motorcycle beyond repair, Alice had once again hit the road by foot, scavenging cities and using her modified blood to her advantage. Eventual undead were easily located by this type of sixth sense she had been given and she simply gave them peace.

She had lost her ability to be around people again, so she avoided their curious glances and lit a cigarette. "Whenever you're ready to hand me my gun back, I'm game," she grunted.

"Who the fuck are you?" the brunette asked angrily.

"Who the fuck wants to know?" Alice offered her a sarcastic smirk.

"She's Jill," the girl took a step forward and stretched a small hand to Alice. "I am Angie. Don't worry," she added to the woman named Jill when she tried to stop her. "She won't hurt us. She's like me."

Alice snapped her neck. "What?" she hissed dangerously.

Jill rolled her eyes, blowing her bangs away from her face. "I'm sure she doesn't have time for that, Angie," she said, handing Alice her sack and the rifle with suspicion. "And we should get going, come on."

But Angie did not move. She stared fixedly at Alice, no matter how terrible the blonde looked. "I was infected with the virus," she softly told Alice, just as if she were saying her favorite ice cream flavor was chocolate. "And so are you. Do you feel the alerts in your blood?"

Alice frowned. "How do you-?"

"It tingles from time to time. I felt it when you got up."

"You talk like an adult," Alice said gruffly, trying to keep her curiosity suffocated as much as she could.

"Well, you're acting like a child," Angie retorted. "And I see you didn't know you were infected, so don't pretend you don't want to hear more."

"Fine, Einstein," Alice rolled her eyes and sat down on the ground. "Share your wisdom with a mere mortal."

"Technically, you can't die," the girl shrugged, and added at Alice's bulging eyes. "Well, dead people came back to life, so…"

"Your daughter is a genius," she whispered to Jill, impressed. It was the first time Jill's lips crisped into a thin smile.

"Angie is my friend," she offered, sounding a little nicer once she decided they were not in danger with the blonde around. "My roadtrip mate. We escaped Raccoon City together after the outbreak and we've been traveling so far. It's safer than settle down for too long."

Alice only nodded in understanding. A convoy of two…

She sighed deeply. "So, where are you ladies heading to, now?"

Jill and Angie exchanged looks. They had an air of accomplices even though Angie was possibly two decades younger than Jill. The brunette stared deeply into Alice's eyes and held her gaze for a moment. "Angie's dad was a scientist for Umbrella, and he… developed the virus to cure her disease. She had leg paralysis. The virus was only meant for her, to fix the dysfunctional gene… Umbrella took it from him and started to use in large scales, causing the end of human race as we know it. We're going back to the facility in Raccoon City to try and retrieve more anti-virus for Angie."

"Why do you need the anti-virus?"

"To keep the t-virus under control," Angie said. "Dad used them combined so I wouldn't get infected. I used the last dose two days ago and now I need more. Someone stole the rest from us."

"Why were you infected?" Jill asked Alice while she still tried to process the information.

Alice pursed her lips and shook her head. "I was in the Army, and I don't remember anything. I woke up and everyone was gone, except…" she looked lost for a moment, a deep frown shading her eyes. "I signed a form… accepting terms… my own risk," the blonde blurted out slowly, flashes of needles and her hand scratching the paper with a pen piercing her mind like lightning bolts.

"You volunteered," Jill said, and at Alice's questioning gaze. "I worked for the Raccoon City Police department. We were late informed about the tests."

"If I've been infected for all these years and I haven't died… What the fuck I am?"

"We're heading for the anti-virus at the Hive, their especial facility," Jill answered. "You might find answers there."

Alice considered it a waste of time if she planned on finding about Alaska, but at the same time she yearned to know who the hell she was, and clinging to the possibility that figuring herself out might actually help her, Alice went onboard the car.

**XXX**

It took them a week to get there. Alice's recurrent dreams caused small accidents on the road as they drove to Raccoon City. Pieces of pavement simply lift up in front of the car, or lamp posts fell from their spot, barricading the way – not to mention malfunctioning electric parts of the car that suddenly revived.

"Can you _please_ fall asleep only when we stop?" Jill had asked furiously, and Alice had to comply. She didn't like Jill thinking she was the boss, but she could not help from wanting to save that girl's life.

Sadly, Raccoon City had been in fact a waste of time. Not only it was completely dead, but the Hive had been sealed shut and there was no way they could get in. Alice watched as Jill punched and kicked the secret passage to it from inside of a creepy mansion at the top of Arklay Mountains.

Alice tried to destroy it with her telekinesis, but it didn't work and in the end she was exhausted and more frustrated than Jill was.

"Why the fuck your super powers won't work now?" Jill yelled at her.

The blonde remained silent. She had no idea why it wasn't working, but it didn't make her feel less guilty. As Jill ranted and threw her fists up in the air, Alice saw Angie watch the view from the top of the mountain. It was just not fair that this girl would not make it. Alice would swap places any time, if she could.

The blonde sat behind the steering wheel in Jill's car, checking the dashboard for something to do with her hands. She touched the radio and clicked it on, surprised that it still worked.

For five minutes or so, all she heard was static. Until a voice caught her attention.

**XXX**

"Have you seen K-Mart?" Claire asked her brother, who tilted his head to indicate the TV News van.

"She's quite into broadcasting these days," he commented with a knowing frown. "You think she's trying to find her family?"

"We are her family now," Claire said rather crossly, but regretted it the same second letting out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry, Chris, I didn't mean to snap at you."

"Don't worry about that," he shook his head and gave her a one arm hug. "Go get the little devil. We need her to help with the removal."

Claire smiled at her big brother, glad to have him near. She moved past a few people and the school bus and finally climbed up the van, where she found K-Mart reading something and fussing about the equipment. The teen quickly hid the notebook behind her back when she saw the redhead.

It felt like Claire had known K-Mart all her life, like a younger sister. She rolled her eyes at the girl, but grinned anyway. "Come on, K. We're leaving in a few hours and we need to put the camp down."

"I'll be just a minute," she promised, hoping Claire wouldn't ask what she intended to do. The redhead's mood had improved slightly since Mikey started to act like her boyfriend around the group, and even though K-Mart found that annoying, she was glad Claire wasn't brooding like before anymore.

"Don't stay there until we're finished," Claire warned, jumping off of the van.

"It was only that time!" she complained, but the redhead was already gone. "Jesus…" K-Mart shook her head, but then she went back to work. She clicked a few buttons and switched on the small lever of the radio. The teen checked if no one else was coming and grabbed the microphone. She took a deep breath and spoke. "This is TerraSave, broadcasting from the emergency frequency. If there's anyone out there looking for safety… Send us your coordinates. I repeat, this is TerraSave, broadcasting from the emergency frequency," K-Mart closed her eyes and fumbled on her chair. She approached the microphone from her lips and added. "Alice, if you're listening to this… Please."


	5. Your frequency

**N/A: So, hey… Hmmm let me just say how happy I am that most of you hate C/M. I know it's mean, but how cool would it be to see Alice kicking his ass? **

**Jokes apart, a bit (okay, a lot) of ANGST on this chapter. You've been warned.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil. And that sucks.**

**Find me on tumblr: follow-that-convoy**

**Find the Challenger too: keepcalmandshipclairice**

**5. Your frequency**

Jill Valentine had always been a tough person, and she had not made her way towards the RCP elite squad by being weak or admitting defeat. Apparently, an experimental virus outbreak and the end of the world could change that about people, even for the bravest ones.

She was having a meltdown, kicking everything she found on her way, damning God out loud, and realizing she had no control over her life anymore. Jill could not believe Angie was condemned. That girl had been keeping her sane for years, and now Jill was losing her mind over it.

She heard the car's door being slammed and within seconds Alice came storming in her direction. The blonde was raging furious, wiggling her long fingers as if she were trying to prevent from making fists. Her hat had fallen a few steps back, and Jill notice a darker shade on her unruly hair.

"Well, that's very Western of you," Jill spat bitterly, folding her arms. "But it's good for nothing."

"Get out of my way," Alice hissed through gritted teeth, and just then Jill noticed the flash of red in her green eyes. For a second she thought the blonde was going to push her, but Alice simply went past her and entered the mansion.

Jill checked if Angie was still sitting by the rock, and she wondered whether it was safe to leave her there for a minute. She wanted to follow that lunatic and see what she was on about, but there was no time for it. The earth quacked and dry branches of trees came down to the ground as a loud explosion erupted from the same door Alice had disappeared through.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jill whined as she watched the ground become still and the thunderous noise turn into silence. "You didn't have to get yourself killed, you fucking selfish bitch-"

Jill turned her attention back to Angie, who was running to her. "What's going on?" the little girl asked anxiously.

"I don't know," the brunette muttered, pulling Angie with her towards the house. "Maybe you should stay by the door while I walk in and check?"

Angie sighed and nodded. She was already feeling her knees hurt a little, but maybe it had been her sitting position for many hours in the car on their way to Raccoon City.

Jill left her at the door step, and after one final glance at Angie, she moved ahead inside the mansion with her gun and a flashlight at ready. The place was buried in darkness and debris, but as soon as she caught movement to her left, she spun on her heels and pointed the light and the barrel to the moving figure, her thumb pulling the trigger.

"Go ahead," Alice hissed with arrogance, not even squinting at the light hitting her eyes.

"Are you _insane_? I was gonna fucking shoot you!" Jill yelled at her, lowering the gun.

"Like that would work," the blonde grunted, heading to a roughly carved tunnel that stood where moments ago the sealed passage had been. "Stay with Angie," she ordered coldly. "I'm going to get the anti-virus."

"But-"

"If I take too long-" Alice cut her, sparing Jill one glance "-do not come for me."

Jill could not argue with that; if something managed to kill that woman, then she probably wouldn't want to know what awaited for her down there. She watched the blonde disappear through the darkness of the tunnel, wondering what she would do if Alice did not come back.

Angie was waiting outside when Jill left the mansion with shivers running down her spine. The little girl followed her quietly towards the rock she had been sitting before. There was a lake by the foot of the mountain, and it was a miracle something like that had resisted the world's devastation. It was impossible to tell whether the water was infected or not, but still… It was a nice scenario.

"Dad promised me he would have someone teaching me how to swim since he couldn't do it himself," Angie commented. "We never had the chance."

"Well, maybe I could teach you," Jill smiled, swallowing back her tears. "Alice's coming back in a minute with the anti-virus and you'll be fine again."

"Jill?" Angie called after a moment.

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"Do you think Alice really likes us?"

Jill stared at Angie for a full minute, unable to answer that question. "I… think so. Why?"

"Well… It's like in nature. The survival of the fittest. I'm obviously slowing you down, and if there's anyone that fits nature right now, that one would be her."

"Could you talk like a girl your own age for a minute?" Jill teased her with a nudge. They laughed together for a minute that reminded them of all the good days they had before.

Jill had had a funny childhood, and at first she was sorry that Angie was so serious and mature for her age. Trying to compensate the girl – who had lost everything so soon - Jill had taught her some jokes and even how to pick locks, but Angie had been mostly shy about those.

The girl had spent the first years of her short life on a wheelchair, and when she could finally go running around without much purpose, hell had broken loose, and now she really had to run for her life.

Jill had promised her everything would be alright, and silently she promised herself that she would make it better for Angie, and that she would always take care of her. Now she was going to break that promise. She was going to fail Angie - and she had thought that living on this earth was already punishment enough.

**XXX**

Alice would probably never understand that, but K-Mart's voice had triggered a lot of anger inside of her. She felt her blood heat up and boil in her veins, and her head started to throb, a shrilling cry slicing through her brain like a blunt knife. Images of the army and the experiments flashed past her mind, and she remembered all the pain, the deaths, the agony…

_Alice, if you're listening to this… Please…_

Please what? Alice was fuming, frustrated that Angie was going to die because of her. She had work to do. She had a _lot_ of work to do, and yet they didn't seem to care. What people expected from her? Why was K-Mart even trying to reach her? As if meeting them and parting ways had not been damn difficult…

Alice had dreams of Claire lying flat on her back, dying slowly while Umbrella took K-Mart away from them. Claire would gaze up at Alice with forgiving eyes, her red hair spread over the dust like a veil. And Alice would be alone forever, because she couldn't die. Alice would wake up with a cry stuck in her throat. Every fucking time.

"This ends here," she hissed. She was going to save that kid, and she was going to give Claire and K-Mart their world back, free of infection and free of Umbrella. And then maybe they all could stop tormenting her and disturbing her dreams. Maybe Claire would stop haunting her with her blue eyes and her smile.

Consumed by this turmoil, it had been easy to blow up a wall. It had been physically painful to destroy the secret passage, but she figured once you're immortal, pain was just like catching a cold – it's annoying but it eventually goes away. Alice entered the tunnel and gave herself one minute to forget. Her demons would have to wait if she wanted to get revenge.

As soon as she cleared her mind, Alice realized she could see perfectly well in the dark. And she could smell, too. Undead waited for her down below, hungry, bloodthirsty. Little did they know how eager she was to give them just a slice of her rage.

Most of the underground facility was preserved and had been salvaged from the major effects of the bombs she had planted months ago. It decimated what was left of Raccoon City – inhabitants including – but the mansion atop the mountain and the Hive had not suffered from it. If anything, the former employees might have done that mess in attempts to escape that deathly trap.

Alice had never allowed herself to feel guilty when she abandoned people, but now the feeling was coming back, crawling its away towards her chest as she tried to ponder how many had died because of her. She left people unprotected when they had pleaded for her to stay. She had given her back to Claire and K-Mart just because it was easier, and she didn't even know if the girl had called because they needed help. Now she was just about to fail the little girl and Jill, because that was what she did best.

She met many undead along the way through the corridors she found ahead in the Hive, and as she neatly sliced their throats with a pocket knife, Alice came into terms that soon it would be just her against the world. There was no escape from this fate if she continued to refuse to help.

The blonde decided that she was going to save Angie, and that she was going to purge the world from Umbrella for other survivor's sake, and not because it was a personal pleasure to kill and explode things. She didn't want to live forever, and perhaps declaring war was what it took to find release.

Bearing that in mind, Alice slithered through the alleyways, dining halls and offices, and avoided wasting time with the undead. They were slow, and it was not as if they could outrun her or anything. She followed senses she didn't even know she possessed, and in a few minutes the blonde found herself inside a lab.

Empty cages lined up the wall, and she sniffed something rotten coming from them. Alice decided to ignore it for now, remembering she had no idea what the anti-virus looked like.

"Shit," she hissed, running her hand over the metal table, feeling dust stick to her fingertips.

_Blue for the virus, green for the anti-virus_…

Green. It was something green. She fumbled the cabinets that still had doors and she messed about shelves and desks until… something glimmering on the corner caught her eye, almost completely concealed by a metallic bin, lying forgotten on the floor.

Alice bent over to pick it, when she heard a soft growl behind her back. When she turned around, she found out what had escaped the cages.

"This is _so_ fucking great," she grunted, loading the rifle.

**XXX**

Jill paced silently on the mansion's front lawn. She had just checked her watch, but she did it again, only to confirm that it had been fifty minutes that Alice was gone. She was going to kill her if she died.

The brunette looked over the trees and caught a strange type of wind blowing what was left of them. Jill hadn't seen rain in years, and suddenly it felt like every dusty particle in the air was agglomerating into clouds to bring a major storm down to Earth.

She placed one hand on Angie's shoulder and led her inside. They could wait in that creepy living room for a few more minutes. There was no way Jill was leaving without the anti-virus. The climatic turmoil that took place outside was another good reason to stay indoors, and it took Jill a minute to realize that the phenomenon was happening within the house too.

"Jill," Angie whispered, tugging at her t-shirt and pointing at the hole Alice had made on the wall. "She's coming back."

Jill watched amazed as she noticed the floor tremble, making pieces of furniture and glass shackle with the dust. Alice appeared and came running towards them, rifle in hand and a deadly look on her face.

"Move!" she ordered with a raspy voice, and Jill saw two creatures that looked like dogs coming right after the blonde, barking and snapping their toothy jaws. They had no fur or skin, and their muscles shone even in the dim lit room.

Jill dragged Angie with her behind a couch, and they both watched Alice kick them every time they tried to attack her. The blonde caught Jill with her eye and threw one green vial at her; she caught it in the air and let out a sigh of relief.

"We're gonna have to go to the car," Jill softly informed Angie. "The syringe's there, and I need to give you your shot right now. Do you think you can run?"

Angie considered her sore legs, but she didn't want to disappoint Jill or Alice. "Yes, I can do this." Jill nodded at her and then peeked the fight over the red fabric. Alice was seriously having issues with the monster dogs.

"Shoot them!" Jill called out. "I'll have to go outside with Angie!"

"I'm out of bullets!" the blonde barked with a grim smirk.

"Put them on fire or something!" the brunette shrugged awkwardly when Alice looked at her with a frown. "Well, whatever it is you can do with your powers…"

Alice let out a breathless chuckle and ducked from another assault; she found one match in her pocket and scratched it against the sole of her jackboot. She looked back at Jill and Angie. "Go!"

The brunette didn't wait for a second order; she held the little girl's hand and dragged her towards the entrance door, feeling a cloud of heat licking their heels as they run. Even when the cool air blessed their skin they didn't stop. Jill let go off the girl and ate up the distance to the car. She found the old syringe in the glove compartment, plunged the green liquid up and flicked it slightly.

Jill's heart almost stopped when she turned and found Angie on the ground, struggling with pain. There was smoke coming out of the house, but she could not think about that now. Alice could save her own ass. Jill ran back to the girl and dropped on her knees next to her.

"Here, stay calm, sweetie," she hushed, pulling Angie's sleeve up and injecting the green liquid as softly as she could. Angie cringed in pain, but her face started to gain some color after a few seconds. That had been close.

The brunette collected the girl into an embrace, and both stood still on the ground, breathing fast, trying to calm the pace of their hearts. Alice finally left the mansion, rifle in hand and looking like she was just about to faint. Her skin was scorched at several points, and there was nothing much left of her clothes.

She and the brunette stared at each other. Alice shook her head, and Jill nodded in understanding. That had been the last vial of anti-virus they would ever lay hands on.

**XXX**

Later on that night, Alice climbed up the mountain and joined Jill and Angie by the small fire they had made next to the car. The blonde had decided to investigate the water on the lake down there, and to her surprise, she discovered it was clear. She had bathed and changed clothes, and filled up two gallons to take to Jill and Angie.

When she arrived, Angie was curled up in Jill's arms, fast asleep.

"She had a rough day," Alice said. "I set up the living room for you both spend the night."

"What about you?" Jill asked.

"I'll be here. Someone needs to do night watch."

Jill swallowed hard at all the implications that came with Alice's words. The blonde was offering them some space to be alone like in their old days, because Angie's days were a fucking countdown. Alice had sealed the passage again with broken furniture and rocks, meaning the living room was safe for them.

The brunette held Angie up in her arms and walked silently towards the mansion. The good thing about having Alice for company was that she didn't have to actually say nice things to her. Jill wasn't good with that, and Alice didn't seem to be, either. It was the easiest partnership Jill had ever made. She didn't even have to bid her goodnight, because Alice never said it back, and because Jill knew they would not have good ones.

Alice kicked some dust to put the fire down and got one of Jill's cigarettes. It had not been a minute that they had entered the mansion and the brunette appeared at the door again.

"Angie?" Alice inquired. Jill nodded. The blonde put out the cigarette to finish it later and walked to her friend. The brunette gave her a short appreciative nod. Alice returned a few minutes later to Jill's side. "Go get some sleep," she whispered to the brunette.

"What was it?"

Alice closed her eyes, trying to digest what Angie had just asked. "She wanted to know if I was going to stay."

"The night?"

Alice pressed her lips together and then looked at Jill. "Until she dies."

Jill felt something burn in her throat. "And what did you tell her?"

"I said I was," Alice said, feeling uncomfortable with Jill's sorrow when she could do nothing to change that. "Go ahead and stay with her."

The blonde heard Jill enter the house as she walked away towards the car. She lit the scorched cigarette again and sat behind the steering wheel. Alice placed her hat on the passenger's seat and turned the radio on the emergency frequency.

She spent hours changing channels, only having static as results. That was so damn frustrating.

**XXX**

"What's the verdict?"

Claire looked around and found Mikey standing next to her, watching the supply truck as intently as she had seconds ago.

"We have food for a month, water for two weeks and gas for a few miles."

"We're screwed," he grunted.

"Genius," Claire spat sarcastically and sighed in frustration. "I need to talk to Chris about it. We can't move everyone in the next excursion for supplies."

"Well, why do you have to talk to him about it? You can talk to me," Mikey said, sounding annoyed again. He always did when their conversation went around the convoy.

"Mikey, once and for all," Claire shook her head in exasperation. "We don't have to do the after sex shit. Seriously, let's stick to being simple."

"Why?"

"What else do you want? I gave you what you asked for and now all you have to do is reattribute the favor. Why do you always have to whine about it?"

"I didn't want just… _that_!" he hissed, his neck and ears growing red as he looked around to check if anyone was overhearing their conversation. "Is that so hard to get?"

"I told you it would be just that," the redhead spat back. "This is the fucking end of the world, like _you_ said! Can't we just have a good fuck and forget about it? Life's already complicated enough, and now you're trying to ruin the sex, too!"

Mikey let out a deep breath and folded his arms. Claire had changed over the months, and she didn't sound much more like the sweet young woman he had met years ago. She was always harsh and moody around him, except when he was doing what she told him to do.

He watched her clean the lenses of her aviators with the rim of her tank top and hook them near the peg of her suspenders. Her red hair fell over her blue eyes; Claire pulled them back and stared defiantly at him.

"Who's Alice?" Mikey blurted out.

Raw anger flicker in Claire's eyes, and it took her a full minute to recover and finally answer in a shaky, brittle voice. "You're so over the line, Mikey…"

He laughed humorlessly. "I'm over the line?_ I_ am? You sleep over and I'm the one watching you squirm when you have nightmares! I'm just worried about you, and you tell me I'm over the line?" he shook his head in disbelief. "So how is it going to be, Claire? We fuck and you leave?"

Claire swallowed hard and looked away. "Maybe this was a bad idea."

"Don't do this."

"I'll see you later, Mikey," she gave her back to him, waving him off. "I'm busy now."

With that she walked away, her heart hammering her chest and ribs completely out of control. She needed a fucking cigarette. She needed to be alone for a fucking second. She really needed to get over her idiotic heart.

Claire was walking in such a hurry that she didn't see K-Mart coming. She bumped painfully against the girl and held her by the hand to prevent from knocking her off.

"Hey, are you okay?" K-Mart asked with a frown. She never saw Claire looking so upset, even when they had returned to the convoy almost a year ago.

"Yeah, I was just going to-"

"You're crying."

"I'm not crying!"

"Claire, stop being so stubborn!" K-Mart held her back when the redhead tried to move past her. "Is it Mikey again?"

Claire sniffed loudly and looked up; there was red all around her blue irises. "What do you know about-"

"Oh, now you think I'm blind or stupid, Claire?" K-Mart said angrily. "Do you think I don't see you sneaking out of the Hummer every night? It's been weeks now! And everyone's talking about how he drools and seems to eat you up with the looks he gives you!"

"Mikey… Mikey's not the pig you think he is," Claire said slowly.

"Oh, he's not?" the teen laughed sarcastically. "Who's the pig then? Alice?"

Claire's nerves tingled again with the mention of the name. "You think that she's some fucking perfect human being because she saved your life once, K-Mart! You didn't even know her!"

"Well, did you?" she spat back defiantly.

Claire was shocked, and she had to breathe before she answered. "I met the side of her that she chose to show me. That was enough."

"If you hate her this much, then why you're so miserable with goody two shoes Mikey?"

"Because Mikey's trying to make me happy," Claire finally admitted "and I'm not letting him."

K-Mart remained silent. She had no idea that things between them had become so serious. The teen had actually liked Mikey when they first met, but once she realized what his intentions around Claire were, she had jumped to Alice's team.

"We both know why you're not letting him, Claire," K-Mart said, getting closer to the redhead. "Stop lying to him. Stop lying to yourself. Let's broadcast our location and see if we can bring her over."

Here Claire gave K-Mart a sad smile. "I'm the grown up here, okay? I take care of you, and not the other way around," she said chuckling, giving the teen an affectionate hug. "I have to take care of all of you, now, and I don't have time for this, K."

"God, just because you're an adult it doesn't mean your life has to suck," K-Mart offered a smirk that Claire accepted and returned. "Well, go ahead and do your boring stuff. I'll be around camp when you run back to me, begging for a joke or some fashion advice."

Claire watched K-Mart walk away and shook her head in amusement. "You're just fifteen!" she called out. "When did you become so smart?"

K-Mart looked over her shoulder and scowled at Claire, casting her tongue out. Claire chuckled lightly, wondering what would have happened to her if K-Mart were not around to keep her sanity in check. She saw at distance Chris catching up with the teen; he tried to slap the brim of her cap and get it out of her head, but K-Mart had been prepared for his attack.

She diverted from his hand swiftly and left after mercilessly mocking him. Claire remembered the way Chris used to drive her insane when he tried to do that to her, and she laughed at the similarity between hers and the teen's reaction.

Chris walked towards his sister rubbing the back of his neck with a small grin tugging his lips. "So, being a smartass seems to run in the family," he pointed his thumb randomly over his shoulder to indicate the girl. "She acts exactly like you."

"Well, I'm glad she's got all the good genes from me," Claire joked back, and decided to quickly change the subject when she saw the look on Chris's face. She knew that after months of mystery, her brother wanted to know who had been K-Mart's savior. "Look, I was checking the supplies and-"

"We have gas to move one vehicle, I know," Chris nodded. He was slightly disappointed that Claire didn't seem to trust him enough to share the identity of that fucking heartbreaker. He could seriously kick some ass to defend his sister's honor, no matter how pathetic the redhead would think he was. "I think we should recruit one group to go for supplies in the next town."

Claire frowned. "What about gas?" At her brother's silence, she understood what the plan was. "If they don't find any, they don't come back," she muttered. "No way."

"I don't like it either, but-"

Claire followed Chris glare towards the thundering sky. "What the-?"

"Claire, run!" Chris yelled, loading his machine gun.

Everything happened so fast that Claire barely had time to unholster her Glock and yell instructions to the other survivors. Four black choppers flew in the area they had set camp that week, and the minute the redhead saw the Umbrella insignia on them, she knew she had to find K-Mart.

"K-Mart!" she yelled. "_K-Mart!_ Shit… You, gather the kids and put them all inside the bus," Claire ordered Otto, who nodded in understanding. "Have you seen K-Mart?"

"Sorry," he said, pressing his lips together. He hurried to open the bus doors and Claire watched him easily line up the thirteen kids that belonged to their group; apparently, being a school bus driver all his life had given him skills to enthrall children with a few soothing words and humor.

She ran up to a group of adults and had them quickly hiding themselves in the cargo truck. Chris stood across from her on the camp, barking orders to the people that knew how to fire a gun, Chase and Mikey among them.

Claire was just about to call out for Chris, hoping he had seen the direction K-mart went a second ago, but them Umbrella decided to make life a little more difficult for her and the other survivors. Bullets poured from the sky like rain, creating a dangerous cloud of dust that blinded them. She heard Mikey calling her name several times, but she could not stop now.

"K-MART!" Claire ran, testing her luck once again, and she ducked in time when a round of bullets hit the tanker. She slid underneath it, closing her mouth and eyes because of the dust, and as she rolled out the other side, she saw the teen cornered inside the transmission van, holding the microphone and trying to start the equipment.

Claire went fumbling towards her and unceremoniously dragged the girl out, protecting her with one arm keeping her slightly bent. Their way back was going to be a lot harder now the helicopters were closing in, having a clear view of the survivors who stomped around the camp.

They heard shooting and cries; the redhead was wondering if the people falling around her and K-Mart were Chris or Mikey, but then she thought she saw her brother shooting back in the middle of the dust.

Some vehicles were on fire, and Claire was running out of ideas for places to hide. She wanted to make sure K-Mart entered the truck and then she would join the resistance front with her brother and the others. The leader pulled the teen with her behind a metal tank; they squatted together, breathing hard and hearts pounding in rhythmless fashion.

"What the hell… were you doing?" Claire managed to ask in between ragged breaths.

"I was trying… Alice," K-Mart panted, resting her head against the rusty tank.

Claire shook her head, for a second wanting to know if the girl had succeeded, but she was tired of keeping her hopes up for the blonde. She had done that the first weeks, and she got nothing but a lot of anger to manage afterwards.

"Get over it, K," she whispered, closing her eyes and feeling that for a moment she was naked inside the tent and green eyes savored her. "She's not coming back for us."

Something a lot more powerful than bullets hit the ground and sent waves of heat all over the camp; Claire and K-Mart rolled over and crawled towards the old ambulance. With the corner of her eye, Claire saw Chase helping a little girl climb up on the truck.

"Chase, why are you sending the kids to the truck?" Claire yelled over the firing noise. "They're supposed to stay on the bus with-"

The redhead didn't hear what the cowboy said, but she followed his grimace and saw Otto bleeding behind the steering wheel while kids jumped off of the bus at Chris's commands. The Umbrella soldiers had shot the bus tank, and Claire knew they all had to get away as soon as possible before it exploded and killed the whole convoy.

"Mother fuckers!" she cried, pulling K-Mart along, both avoiding bullets by hiding behind the carcass of the vehicles.

"Claire, stop moving!" Mikey yelled at her, looking desperate at the many opportunities she got herself and K-Mart on the line of fire and had been missed by inches. "I'm coming over to get you two!"

"Ass," K-Mart hissed to herself, rolling her eyes. That shooting and hiding was so much funnier when it was just a videogame – or if it involved Alice doing all the mess with the soldiers. "We can handle ourselves, Mikey!" she called out, running around the next vehicle with Claire.

More explosions blasted in the core of their now destroyed camp, and just now it hit Claire that they might not make it. She looked at K-Mart as they both sat down, gasping for air, cursing under her breath. "K?"

"Hmm?"

Another explosion. This time she was sure it was the school bus.

"I love you," Claire blurted, feeling her throat ache with the dust and unshed tears. She half expected the teen to dismiss it and say they would make through it, but instead K-Mart held her hand and squeezed it.

"Love you too," she whispered, praying in silence that they didn't take Claire away from her like they did with her family.

It was possible to feel the fire almost licking their legs, the turmoil of dust and sand only making everything a lot worse.

"K?"

"Yeah?" K-Mart looked at Claire when the redhead didn't say anything. Her face was completely covered in grime, but the teen recognized a long lost emotion in Claire's blue eyes, which seemed brighter now that her face was so dirty.

"Did she answer?" Claire asked, looking into her lap. K-Mart squeezed her hand again, trying to show the leader that she shared her frustration.

"Wouldn't it be just awesome if she showed up and exploded all those-" K-Mart was cut short when Claire pulled her and kissed her cheek.

"When the fuck did you get so smart?" she stood up and leaned on the car's hood, waving to the people barricading behind the cars on the other side. "Chris! Chris! Shoot their tanks! The tan-"

Claire plunged and her body hit the ground painfully as another grenade sent debris and fire everywhere. She was not surrendering to those stupid helicopters. When the redhead crawled her way up one more time, she saw Chris, Mikey, Chase and the others shooting non-stop at the choppers, the idea of defeating Umbrella suddenly changing their resolve and giving them energy to give their best.

It was also truth that more people got shot while taking part of the plan, but Claire had hopes that it would all end soon – for better or for worse – and she was right. It took them one helicopter to finally get advantage. The hovering black bird caught fire and blasted, making the others unstable. One actually fell with the explosion, and the other two were having a hard time to surround the survivors.

The soldiers kept shooting, but now the dust and grime were in the air, so the convoy hurried and fired against both shooters from the helicopters. Claire ran to the middle of the camp, and she had Mikey and Chris on each side of her. They fired with purpose, and she actually caught a glimpse of Chase throwing car parts at the choppers.

The third one fell when the pilot was shot in the head, and the fourth slowly started to retreat.

"Don't let them get away!" Chris ordered over the hushing wind. "They'll come back with more people! Shoot! Shoot the tank side of the chopper!"

The final seconds seemed to last hours, but the task force of the survivors' guns combined finally took the last helicopter down. After a minute, while everyone breathed hard, watching the dust settle around small fires, Claire felt Mikey encircle her waist with one arm. It felt good not to have to sustain her weight for a moment.

"I'm sorry about what I said to you," she whispered, avoiding his eyes.

"Never mind that," Mikey said, but his voice carried relief that Claire was talking to him again. "Are you okay?"

The redhead looked into his green eyes, trying to find someone that wasn't there. She gave him a small smile and nodded. "I'm gonna go find K…"

"Yeah," Mikey let her go. "Catch up with you later."

Claire walked hurriedly around the car and found K-Mart already standing up, a small cut bleeding on her left cheek. "Oh my God-!"

"It was just a shard of glass," the teen dismissed the leader's concern with a proud grin. She bent over to check herself on the side mirror of the vehicle. "And it's really small. I bet there won't even be a scar to brag about."

Claire had a frown of perplexity. The blonde girl was becoming weirdly fond of fighting lately. Maybe it was her personal vendetta against Umbrella, but Claire thought there was more to it. She had seen K-Mart testing her Glock when she thought no one was looking.

"K, is there anything you wanna tell me? Are you… worried about something?"

K-Mart merely shook her blond head, but Claire didn't buy it; she kept staring at the teen, who rolled her eyes in exasperation. "You're doing exactly what my mom did when I lied to her! Stop it, Claire, it's creepy!"

"We're getting the hell out of here, K-Mart," the redhead promised. "I'm not letting them take you again."

The blonde swallowed hard and tried to smile, but a lot of emotions where boiling together in her chest. Of course she was terrified with the idea of going back to those labs. She just wasn't expecting Claire to figure it out so quickly.

"I know you won't," she said to the redhead, looking away from the older woman until she knew for sure she wasn't going to cry. She felt Claire pull her by the hand towards the truck where most of the survivors were. The redhead gave her privacy even at doing so, because she didn't try to force conversation about that anymore.

Instead, they joined Chris and Chase to evaluate the damages. They had lost four adults and three kids. That was all Claire could think about while the men took inventory of what was left of transportation and supplies. They had lost the tanker, the ambulance, the TV news van, the bus and the U-Haul pick up.

Half of the supplies were lost with the explosions, and the rest was inside the cargo area of the truck with the other survivors. "Well, we don't need to worry about gas anymore," Chase said with a shrug upon realizing all that was left were the Hummer and the truck. "Let's empty both tanks and split it in equal parts. We travel together until we can. We're right after you, Claire."

The leader nodded. She liked that idea, and she silently walked towards the Hummer, feeling K-Mart right behind her. Chris and Mikey worked on the gas division and fueled both vehicles. Her brother then climbed next to the cowboy on the truck's cabin and he had his machine gun at ready for the roadtrip. Mikey waved briefly at Claire and climbed onboard with the other survivors.

"Well, at least he can get a clue," K-Mart grunted, and it made Claire chuckle. The teen was almost expecting to be sent to the back while Mikey could drool for Claire on _her_ seat.

Claire started the vehicle, feeling gratitude for being alive and hearing that sound again. She waited to take off when she saw Chris jump off the truck and come towards the Hummer. He stopped by her window, grasping the metal nets they installed there for safety. The older Redfield eyed his sister intently.

"Are you okay to drive?" he asked softly. "We can all go-"

"You're not seriously suggesting I leave this baby behind, are you?" Claire said with a weak grin. Chris chuckled lightly and nodded in understanding.

"Take the highway heading east," he said. "We're going somewhere far from here."

"Fine," Claire agreed, putting her aviators on. Chris moved around the car and stopped for a brief moment at K-Mart's window. "Nice gash, soldier." The teen adjusted her sunglasses with purpose, looking so full of herself that Claire had to fight the laughter.

It was nothing new that the sun was fustigating their skins, and it was no surprise that Claire could do with a smoke – any kind of smoke. The convoy had travelled for about half an hour, when K-Mart looked at Claire's serious profile.

"Can I drive?"

"Of course you can't."

"Not your car," she added. "Some other we find."

"Forget it."

"Why?"

"Because you don't have a license!"

K-Mart's mouth hung open in disbelief. "Are you serious? Because I don't have a _license_? You're right, traffic these days have been hell…"

"Lay off with the sarcasm, young lady," Claire warned her, wanting to laugh again. "And you can't drive because you're fifteen."

"What difference does that even make?"

"Can I have some normalcy around here?"

**XXX**

"Jesus, I can't stand it anymore…"

Alice looked up at Jill. She was sitting on the ground, resting her back against a large stone that seemed to be the base of a sculpture. The brunette paced nervously in front of her, pulling her hair just as if she wanted to rip it from her head.

"I'm on it," she offered, standing up and walking to the mansion. Each step brought a new wave of dread; she had no idea of what to expect as the days went by. It had been a week since she found the last dosage of anti-virus inside the Hive, and since then all they had were sleepless nights holding Angie's hand.

The inside of the house was cool and dark, but Alice easily located the little girl on the red couch, face contorted in pain, her chest heaving quickly with the effort she seemed to make to stand it. Alice took a step further, feeling something twist her stomach with their proximity.

Angie looked up at her with pleading eyes. The blonde swallowed hard, shut her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When she stared down again, Angie had sat up as much as her body permitted. And she was waiting.

"You promised," she reminded the older woman.

Alice took her gun out of her belt, feeling her blood tingle just as if Angie were a threat. She knew it was the t-virus taking control of the girl, but still she hated how her body reacted to it. Alice retreated a little and pointed the gun at Angie. What the fuck was she doing, listening to an eight year old girl? Where she was with her mind that she had a child at gun point?

"Alice, you know this is for the best," Angie whispered. "I don't want to become one of… _them_. And you know Jill won't-"

Alice gulped; she turned the safety off, pulled the hammer back and touched the trigger. She had expected Angie to close her eyes, but she didn't. Instead, she stared intently at her executioner. "Thank you, Alice," she softly murmured, covering her eyes with her hands.

**XXX**

Jill's heart stopped for a second when she heard the gunshot. She ran as fast as her legs allowed her, and when she entered the living room, it was too late. She let out a cry of fury as she threw herself against Alice, wishing she could hurt her.

Alice didn't move while Jill had her hands and arms all over her; the muzzle was still fuming, and she stood petrified on her spot, a single tear rolling down her cheek. She wanted Jill to destroy her, she really did, but somehow the brunette stepped back and eyed her murderously.

"You deserve to outlive us all," Jill hissed with venom. "You deserve it!"

Alice felt her fingers losing their grip on the handler, and the gun fell heavily on the dirty floor. "I know," she murmured.

"You know?" Jill screamed, looking revolted. "You _know_? You know shit! You have no idea! You're a fucking monster, Alice!"

"She said thank you before I shot her," the blonde snarled, her blood finally taking the best of her. "How do you think it feels? Huh? You know that was the right thing to do, Jill. You know it!"

"What-?"

"She asked me that night," despair tangled Alice's words, and the brunette finally had her attention locked. "She knew you wouldn't do it, even though you loved her. She asked me. And I promised her," the blonde caught her breath and looked at Jill right in the eyes. "You know it was the right thing to do. You know it."

Alice left the house when Jill collapsed next to the couch. She tried to click her mind shut, because she didn't want to hear anything. The blonde found a cigarette on her pocket and lit it while she paced all over the devastated forest around the mansion.

Jill came out an hour later, red eyed and looking completely lost. "I need your help to bury her," she blurted out in a weak voice. Alice nodded silently. That was one of the worst nights of her life.

When the morning came, Alice watched Jill pack her things and throw them in the car. The brunette threw at her a small portable radio.

"I can't do this anymore, Alice," she stuttered, unable to look at her friend. "I'm jumping ship."

The blonde took her hat and fumbled with her hair, feeling like an arm was being ripped off of her body. First Angie and now Jill. Claire and K-Mart. The list could go on and on if she took the time to count. Jill was right. She was a monster.

"You take care, bionic woman," the brunette gave her a heartbreaking smile, jumped in the car and left.

**XXX**

It was difficult to precise, but the Terra Save convoy had traveled for about a month to cross the border line to the State of Missouri. After setting camp up and down in three different cities, Claire had decided they should settle somewhere for a while.

"Welcome to Kansas City," Chase said, taking his hat and resting it against his chest in reverence, while everyone else jumped off the truck. It was empty, like most of the other places they had been to.

Claire sparred a little, wishing she could find a cigarette. K-Mart was helping her to unload the Hummer, but at Mikey's sight, she scowled and went to find Chris.

"How's it going, sweetheart?" the blond asked the leader, picking most of the duffel bags she handed him.

"My back's killing me, and so is my head," Claire said with a grimace, tying her hair into a knot and replacing her cap on her head. The heat on the back of her neck was not the most pleasurable sensation, but sun was all they had.

"There's a motel next to the gas station," he pointed out. "Maybe there are decent beds for everyone."

She silently cringed with the perspective of sharing a bed with him. "I wouldn't count on that," Claire shook her head. "We can check, anyway. Children and other survivors are priority, but you know that, right?"

"Maybe I can save us a bed?" he suggested with a sly grin.

"Children and survivors first, Mikey," she repeated, turning around to check the backseat of the Hummer. She found another duffel bag in there, and she recognized it. It was the stuff they had salvaged from the camp in Nevada. She quickly slammed the door and turned back to Mikey, but he was already gone.

Claire wiped the sweat from under the rim of her cap, sighing deeply. Now it would be hard to find an excuse to avoid his company, because she was sure they would find enough beds there.

**XXX**

"Alaska, huh?" Chris asked curious, handing the notebook back to K-Mart.

"Yeah, but Claire won't listen to me. Maybe you could try and talk to her. She listens to you."

"No, she doesn't," he chuckled.

"Give it a try, please," K-Mart pushed the red notebook back at him. When she noticed he wasn't very convinced, she added. "Do you like to see Mikey with his hands on your sister?"

Chris grinned broadly. "Nice try, K."

"Just _talk_ to her!" the teen begged. "I promise I'll be a very annoying third wheel to them if you would just _try_. Please?"

He fumbled with the notebook in his hands and then looked back at the girl. "Fine."

"Oh, you're the best, Chris!" she jumped up on him.

"Yeah, yeah, alright," he smiled at the girl's happiness, hugging her back a little clumsily. "But don't keep your hopes up. Claire's thickheaded."

"I know she is," K-Mart agreed with an eye roll.

"And about that little treat-"

She gave him a devilish smile. "It's our secret."

Chris nodded and went back to help Chase set up a strategic spot to park the truck in case they needed to make an emergency escape.

**XXX**

K-Mart had been sending transmissions for over an hour now, but she got nothing so far. Everyone was celebrating outside around the fire, and she was finally left alone to inspect the long forgotten Police Station.

She sat down on the floor and rested her head of a metal drawer, holding the microphone impatiently. She had alerted about the Umbrella's attack against them, and still silence greeted her.

"Okay, I was really trying to be nice," K-Mart said flustered. "I wasn't going to stoop this low, but you're giving me no choice! Claire's with someone else. Did you hear me? There's someone else! He's not nearly as talented as you are, but at least he's here."

The teen closed her eyes, the noises from small party outside floating around her thoughts. She thought it was about time she gave up on Alice and Claire. They were too much alike when it came to be proud and stubborn. She stood up to turn off the equipment, when a voice broke the static.

"_I'm listening._"

Heart jumping on her throat, the blonde dove for the microphone. _"_ALICE?" she asked breathlessly.

K-Mart could almost see the smirk behind the next sentence. "_Hey, kid._"


	6. Knight in dusty armor

**N/A: So, hey… How's it going, everyone? Still mad at me? Well, once again, thank you all for the reviews. Keep sending them, it's the best way for me to know if I'm doing it right. (Angry PM works too).**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil. But I do own a pack of cigarettes that I'll smoke in frustration.**

**Find me on tumblr: follow-that-convoy**

**Find the Challenger too: keepcalmandshipclairice**

**May the Aberfeels be with you.**

**6. Knight in dusty armor**

Claire grinned contentedly as she ate, appreciating the way the group seemed happy and relaxed around the campfire that night. It felt like very well deserved vacations after a long period working hard, not to mention the stressful and risky trip they took to be there.

They had struggled for food and gas like they always did, and soon the attack they suffered went from a painful trauma to a trophy without a shelf. All the smiles and familiar faces reminded Claire of the first years since the outbreak. Hunting for food was new, and everyone was younger and had a lot more of energy for challenges. Lately they had been edgy around each other, and it was nice to see their good spirits for a while.

Claire caught Mikey staring at her across the fire. She gave him a small smile and turned to her brother, who lay flat on his broad back as he played games with the younger survivors. She watched Chris fondly, recalling the many months it took her to finally find him.

"You're actually pretty great with the little people," she said with a smirk.

"Don't even go there," he raised his eyebrows in alert. "Speaking of little people… Where's K?" he asked his sister while a little boy, Stew, tried to punch him. Chris held him back with a hand on the kid's forehead.

"I don't know, she-"

"Claire! _Claire_!"

Claire and Chris jumped on their feet when they saw K-Mart running to them, and the anxious expression on her face was not helping them to tell apart great news from trouble.

"What? What is it?" the leader inquired the teen with a frown.

"You have… to come… see this," she panted, pointing the Police Station over her shoulder.

"I've got it," Claire muttered quietly to her brother when he impended to follow her. Chris nodded shortly and turned just in time to find Mikey hurrying to catch up with the leader.

"No no no, bro," he stopped the blond guy with one arm across his chest. "She said she got it."

Mikey threw Chris a cold glare; usually they got along well, and Mikey actually liked Claire's brother. However, Chris was acting like a douche the past few days, and even though Mikey knew the reason, he could not affront Chris the way he wanted. Chris was huge and very protective of Claire, and Mikey was sure she would dump him if he got in trouble with her family.

The blond stepped aside and retreated in silence to his previous spot on the ground, watching Claire follow K-Mart to the building.

**XXX**

"Hey, slow down," Claire called out when the teen disappeared in the darkness of the office. The redhead only found her because of the flashlight K-Mart left over a desk. She saw the radio and sighed. "You're still into that, K?"

The blonde simply handed the microphone to the leader. "Speak," she urged.

Claire frowned with a dubious smile, wondering if that was some kind of a prank. She accepted it and drew it closer to her lips. "Hmm, hi, this is Claire Redfield," she smirked, rolling her eyes.

"_Hi, Claire_."

K-Mart was holding her breath and ready to jump on her and get locked into that kind of oh-my-God hug, when she caught the redhead's blank face and felt all the amusement go away. "Please, don't have a heart attack-"

Claire inhaled deeply, holding the mic like a gun. She seemed at a complete loss of what to say. At least it was too dark for the teen to see the red patches blotch her cheeks.

"Can I… have a moment?" Claire whispered, and the blonde girl quickly nodded, leaving the older woman alone in the office.

The redhead sunk on the chair ungraciously. She kept holding the wireless device, breathing hard against it as her heart took much of her energy to beat at top speed.

Claire remained silent for minutes. She couldn't speak, and she couldn't think. The campfire happiness seemed like a very distant world, while everything that seemed to matter was the weak but constant sound of Alice breathing on the other side.

The memory of those green eyes came back to her like a punch, but it was a kind of pain she actually liked. Claire didn't know where she found her voice, but when she did, it sounded completely broken.

"Why did it take you so long?"

**XXX**

Alice had spent most of her days exactly the way she was now – sprawled over the once fancy flooring of the mansion. Her activities resumed to that or punching walls and eventually breaking them to release the tension. She had made several excursions down to the Hive after Jill's departure, and apart from the few undead she still found there, Alice had located files regarding illegal researches involving humans, and to her utter disbelief, she had found an entire folder about her.

It was labeled as 'TS03-05 – Project Alice' with a mug shot attached to the cover with a paperclip. She took a long time glaring at herself in military suit, wearing a cold expression that wasn't much different from what she felt now; it was a very thick folder, but all the desperate greed to know who she was months ago had simply disappeared. She shoved it inside her duffel bag and ignored it completely.

Alice had found a small quantity of canned food in the restaurant area of the facility, and it had been enough for her, and that had been her life for the past thirty days or so. The only thing that contrasted with her apathy was the constant, restless wait for the small radio to sizzle.

She was already losing hope, and then K-Mart's antics crisped her lips into a grin that was now foreign to her expression; the real rush of blood in her body started when Claire's voice finally broke the empty silence and woke her up to life. Alice felt like she was taking a deep breath, opening her eyes and feeling her heart beat for the first time.

"_Why did it take you so long?"_

The blonde had no idea she still had emotions, and she had not expected the feelings that washed over her when the redhead spoke. Claire could be anywhere in the world, and yet she sounded wonderfully close.

She tried to calm her racing mind while images of Claire Redfield flashed past her eyes. The tent, her naked body, the cigarette perched in the corner of her lips, the red hair falling over her blue eyes… "I've been… busy," she said slowly.

"_And are you done_?"

Alice had not expected the suggestive tone in the redhead's voice.

"Not even close."

"_Then why are you doing this_?"

The blonde considered her question. "I don't know."

There was a moment of silence and she actually saw the redhead sighing in frustration. "_You still suck at this, you know_." Alice chuckled, feeling the soreness in her throat caused by the lack of use.

"_That_ I know."

"_Alice?_" Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her name, her unfamiliar name, sounded completely right in Claire's voice.

"Yeah?"

Both women remained silent for minutes, until Claire took a deep breath and finally asked what she had been wondering for a year.

"_Am I ever gonna see you again_?"

Alice swallowed hard, resting her head against the wall as she cursed inwards for all the pain she had been inflicting on people since she decided to mingle with what was left of civilization.

"Not until I finish what I started," was the bitter reply.

There was a slight shift in Claire's tone when she spoke again. "_Alice, this is too damn hard… I'm gonna-"_

"You take care," Alice said harshly, hating herself for her inability with words and the lack of manners. There was a snort on the other side and the line was cut off. "Or have your boyfriend doing that for you," she hissed furiously, throwing the radio against the wall and smashing it.

**XXX**

Claire sunk deeper into the chair, angrily throwing the microphone over the desk. She buried her fingers into her hair and closed her eyes, suddenly wishing everyone outside would just shut up; the seemingly state of joy around the fire was annoying her to no end.

She heard K-Mart approach the desk very slowly, but she didn't look up. If there was someone who didn't deserve a blast of rage, this person was the teen.

"Are you okay?" K-Mart asked quietly. Claire merely nodded. She felt the girl coming closer and simply accepted the embrace she offered. "I think I'm gonna go outside. Give you some privacy."

When K-Mart's footsteps faded away, Claire lifted her head and stared out of the window. Alice was out there, somewhere, watching the lack of stars too. During the many times that a reencounter with Alice unrolled in her mind, Claire had pictured herself being a bitch, rubbing to Alice's face exactly how hard life had been to her over the past few years, and how harder it got when Alice left her.

The moment she heard that husky voice, all her resolve to stay mad had evaporated and she didn't even have time to recompose. Alice was right; she was dumb. It was time she learnt that Alice was not coming back to her like a long lost lover.

"You wuss, Claire Redfield," she hissed to herself, hating the hot tears that tried to escape her eyes. She quickly got rid of them and cursed when she noticed Mikey slowly walking towards the Police Station, hands on his cargo pants pockets, throwing wary looks over his shoulder, clearly trying to go unnoticed by the group.

"Hey, sweetheart," he greeted with a sly smile, frowning as soon as he caught Claire's disheveled look. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she stood up and avoided his eyes, walking past him to leave the building. "I'm staying in the Hummer with K tonight," she added by the door. He gave her a short nod and looked around the dim office when she left.

Mikey glared at the forgotten microphone lying on top of the desk, catching the low shrill of the static coming from the radio. He sighed deeply, wondering who the hell was the ghost from Claire's days in Nevada. He was going to fight for her, but it was difficult when he didn't know who he was up against.

**XXX**

As the redhead remained silent, K-Mart walked away feeling a little bothered that her insistence on talking to Alice had resulted in that awkward exchange of words between the two women she admired the most – for their strength and courage, not for their romance skills.

She sat down next to Chris by the fire and accepted the can of soup he offered her.

"What's wrong, K?" he asked gruffly, scavenging the bottom of his can and shoving more food into his mouth. "Something bothering you?"

K-Mart watched her meal with little interest and sighed.

"Wrong flavor?" he growled with a mouthful of beans.

"Chew first, you slob!" she chuckled, grabbing a spoon. The teen looked up at him; he had eyes the same shade of blue as his sister and he always had dirt smudging his cheek. The Redfields shared a few features, but Chris was a complete goof when he wasn't in protector mode around the convoy.

"Jesus, how old are you, K-Mart?" he frowned, a smirk crisping his greasy lips. "Eighty?"

She scowled at him as she tasted the soup for the first time. Her stomach greeted it contentedly, and she could barely believe she had been a soup hater most of her life.

"So… What's going on?" Chris asked again, discarding his empty can. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, watching Mikey sneaking after Claire in the Police Station.

"It's just… it gets boring to travel all the time," K-Mart said. She trusted Chris, but if Claire had not shared the story with him, she had to respect that. "There's nothing much to do, you know. And I was never a true fan of camping with the family."

Chris laughed. "Well, maybe I've got something for you," he stood up and stretched a huge hand for her. K-Mart grabbed it and followed him towards the truck while she carefully ate her food.

He pulled the cargo door open and climbed, once again helping the teen up. Chris clicked his flashlight on and directed the beam to a piece of engine K-Mart had only seen in movies. It looked like a machine gun, but it was bigger and a lot more powerful.

"What is it?" she asked in a low voice.

Chris smiled at the glint in her eyes. "Flame thrower. Chase and I found it this morning when we were combing the area. We're going to install it on the top of the truck tomorrow. You can help us if you want."

K-Mart blinked several times, trying to find the joke on Chris's expression in the dark. "Shut up."

"I'm serious," he chuckled. "And also… I think you should talk to Claire about learning to shoot. I don't think we can count on our little victory against those choppers to relax and never expect another attack from them. And even with this babe" he softly patted the weapon "it would be great if more of us knew how to work a gun."

K-mart considered it, slightly surprised that Chris was treating her like an adult; she loved Claire, but the redhead would never be so crudely honest about their situation if that meant peaceful nights of sleep for the teen.

"I wanna learn," she said with determination.

"But we're talking to Claire first," he insisted. "And now I think we should go. I need you to go and do your third wheel business around Claire and Mikey. He's too close again."

K-Mart let out an evil chuckle. "I'm on it."

"Thank you," Chris saluted her and watched the blonde girl happily jump off of the cargo compartment and run to the campfire. He smiled broadly when he saw the teen sit down between them, pushing both to the side to make room for herself.

Chris was almost a hundred percent sure that Claire would nag him for giving K-Mart those weapon ideas, but he had planned how to deal with his sister. Maybe he was clumsy, and maybe he was not born to lead like Claire, but he cared a damn lot about that girl.

**XXX**

Alice was rough and particularly gruff in normal days. However, being downright pissed transformed her into a merciless killing machine. She left the Arklay mansion resolved that she was going to destroy Umbrella, for everything she had to go through since she was infected with that goddamned virus.

She was going to annihilate Umbrella's name from Earth, and she was going to avenge every single one that had suffered in their hands – Angie, Jill, K-Mart…

"…Claire," she whispered to herself like every day, counting the four people that had changed her life. She hated Claire. Before Claire showed up in that goddamned yellow car, everything was easy, and before Claire walked towards her with her beautiful face, she didn't give a shit to the world. Now she cared, and she completely failed at dealing with that. She hated Claire's boyfriend too.

Alice walked with anger and sorrow at even level, not really sure which one was pulling her forwards to seek revenge. She had read other files from the Hive and now she was going to make a visit to every fucking facility Umbrella possessed. Plans to go to Alaska were long forgotten, cast aside to a very dark corner of Alice's brain as she marched to New York.

All that nobility of dropping her own plans on behalf of a greater good didn't make her less of an asshole. She still met people on the road, and she still treated them with sneer indifference. The blonde fought against small groups of looters that tried to steal her, and she kept going almost blindly, crossing the first State by feet.

At some point under the scalding sun, Alice decided it was time to speed up the process – walking alone usually attracted unwanted company and that was just waste of time. She scavenged a small city and found a functioning pickup truck among other fifty vehicles on the parking lot of a supermarket. It took her only a couple more of days until she finally found herself on the map.

A sign on the road told her she was in Missouri. She was still a long way from her destination, and she was easily getting bored behind the steering wheel without any kind of distraction. Alice stopped for a while and rested her head against the seat; she turned to her right, and the fussing image of Claire quickly flashed past her mind.

"_There's a hat in here. And I think… camp supplies. Oh, canned food! God only knows how I just can't stand pork and beans anymore… Hey, Alice, did you see – What?"_

Alice closed her eyes. She remembered her hands roaming over every inch of Claire's hot skin, every sound she made in response, the look of complete abandon in those blue eyes… And now other hands took her place, and God, wasn't that fucking frustrating… Every time she remembered it, her hands clenched into fists and she felt like she could just-

_BANG!_

Alice jumped off of her seat with the booming sound. There was a huge slice of metal missing from the hood, and there was smoke coming out of the cracked gap. The blonde squinted and saw several parts of the engine land on the road a few yards away.

"Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" she yelled, slamming the steering wheel and finally disconnecting it from the dashboard; Alice threw it angrily through the window like a disc. She got out of the pickup and took a glimpse of the many miles she would have to walk. Alice took a few steps forward and came back; she kicked the old truck's tire repeatedly, feeling the sweat running down her spine underneath her shirt.

Only when she actually jagged the hubcap and flattened the tire Alice stopped. Heart racing and nerves jumping, the blonde placed her hat on her head and hit the road again.

"Damn you, Claire Redfield!" she yelled. "God. Damn. You!"

**XXX**

"No."

Chris sighed, stretching his legs and crossing his ankles on top of the desk, watching his sister pace frantically in front of him. They were inside the Police station finishing the battle of nerves they had started over breakfast, when K-Mart not so subtly told Claire she wanted to learn how to use a gun.

He knew it had been unfortunate to approach his sister when she was clearly hungry and craving for cigarettes, but it was very rare to have Claire agreeing to anything on the spot anyway.

"She's old enough to do it, Claire," he said slowly.

"She's fifteen!"

"Think how different things would be if we all were fifteen! She has energy, she's willing to learn and help, and we should trust her."

Claire eyed her brother suspiciously. "Did she ask you to tell me this?"

"No. I suggested it, if you need to blame someone," Chris shook his head, sounding a little impatient now. "Just think, Claire… How would you feel in her shoes? Would you like to see people you love just dying while all you can do is sit and watch?"

The redhead considered her brother's fair point; she would have hated it. Claire moved closer to the arch where once stood a large glass window and folded her arms as she watched K-Mart engaged with the fire thrower. Chase was instructing her with the nails, and the teen seemed to be having a lot of fun squatting on top of the cargo compartment.

She turned around to face her brother. "I'll think about it," she conceded. Chris nodded shortly, standing on his feet. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and left the station. "Chris?"

He was back by the door one second later. "Yeah?"

"Tell Mikey to come over if you meet him along the way." After spotting a frown of annoyance on her brother's expression, Claire added. "Convoy business, not what you're thinking."

"I wasn't thinking about anything," Chris scowled. "Now I am, damn it…"

Claire rolled her eyes and slumped back into the chair. She turned around and clicked the power button of the radio. She had been listening to static for over three hours since she woke up, only turning it off when Chris joined her for the discussion that morning.

She looked at the device with longing eyes. The frequency indicators were not moving. She regretted that short conversation; the lack of words meant so much more than speaking non-stop, but she hoped they hadn't had so little time. One month and twenty minutes was all she would have of Alice, apparently.

The redhead lifted her head and saw Mikey passing by the station. The minute he saw her, he jumped in through the window arch and approached the desk.

"Hey, sweetheart," he greeted with a hesitant smile.

"Oh, great, I was waiting for you."

Mikey frowned. "Were you?"

"You didn't talk to Chris?"

"No," Mikey sat by the desk. "We ran into each other a second ago, but he didn't say anything."

Claire sighed. Apparently not even the end of the world made Chris change his attitude about picking on Claire's possible date interests. That wasn't good when you were a mere college student from Raccoon University, but it was worse when your whole life resumed to a convoy. They were a group of twenty four people, and they could not afford quarrels when they needed each other to survive.

"Well, anyway," she waved her hand to avoid talking about Chris's lapse "I wanted to ask your opinion on something."

Mikey seemed interested. "What is it?"

Claire looked up at him. She wanted someone else's view on K-Mart carrying a gun, and Mikey was her last chance of it after the disastrous exchange last night. On second thought, she realized it would open too many doors for Mikey, since decisions regarding K-Mart were exclusive for her to make.

"Do you think we should stay longer?" Claire asked instead.

The blond young man looked over his shoulder, watching the survivors for a few seconds, and then returned his gaze back at the redhead. "I don't see a problem. Everyone seems well settled here."

"They do, right?"

Mikey grinned down at her. "You're doing a great job, sweetheart."

Claire sighed and offered him a thin smile. She nearly fell off the chair when the microphone screeched, and the red on her cheeks completely gave her away to him. Mikey folded his arms and pursed his lips.

"Waiting for any transmissions?" he asked quietly.

"Not exactly," she said, clumsily adjusting her body and pulling the microphone away. "But there might still be people out there."

"Yeah," Mikey nodded and slipped off the desk. "Listen, I'm gonna help the guys to sweep the area."

"Uh, sure, yeah. You go, I'll just-"

"See ya later, Claire," he mumbled.

Claire watched him go and then turned the radio off. She stood up as well and left the station to walk around the city and talk to people. She needed to get her mind off things a bit, and she remained their leader – it was her obligation to take care of details and people's welfare.

**XXX**

"So how was it?"

Chris threw a dry branch at the fire and turned to face the teen.

"I think she'll come around."

K-Mart hugged her knees against her body and watched the redhead and Mikey across from them, talking and smiling at each other.

"I think I'm gonna vomit," she grunted, scowling at the pair. Chris sighed deeply next to her.

"Maybe we should test the fire thrower on him."

K-Mart glared at Chris with her round eyes gleaming with mirth. "I think you just read my mind."

"Read mine, now."

"Fine," she stood up, dusting her jeans. The blonde girl spared the older Redfield one last glance and walked towards the couple. Mikey and Claire looked up at her when she stopped next to them. The blond tried to be nice and kept his smile, but Claire wasn't fooled. She eyed K-Mart suspiciously and kept her gaze until the girl sat down beside her on the ground.

"I know what you're trying to do, and it's not gonna work," the redhead said quietly. K-Mart merely shrugged, and Claire drew closer and lowered her voice. "You heard her, K! She doesn't care about us! Just drop it already, okay?"

"She cares about us," K-Mart hissed, feeling angry for the first time. "She cares a whole lot about us, and you don't even know it!"

"Do you?" Claire spat, her heart racing in her chest as she considered the things K-Mart and Alice talked about before she arrived.

"Can we talk about that in private?" she eyed Mikey with contempt. He was distracted talking to Lucinda and playing with her son, Ben, so he didn't even noticed the exchange between the sisters.

"Fine," Claire sighed, tapping his shoulder and indicating the Hummer. He nodded silently, looking put out for a moment.

"Yeah, not getting any tonight, Mister Abercrombie," K-Mart grunted to herself the minute Claire caught up with her.

"What's with the language, K-Mart?" Claire asked irritated. "I'm having a serious conversation with Chris about that, too! I know you're not coming up with everything by yourself!" she added as both walked furiously towards the car.

They opened the doors with equal strength and annoyance, and slumped down the front seats with the same lack of manners. K-Mart folded her arms and kept scowling. Claire turned to her after taking a deep breath.

"We already discussed that," the leader said, not having to worry about being loud anymore. "You heard that from Alice herself, K-Mart, she's not coming for us!"

"She said she would when she was finished! You missed that part, Claire?"

"And then what? I'll have to wait for her forever because everything else in this world is more important than us to her?"

K-Mart glared coldly at Claire. "I told her we had been attacked by Umbrella. I tried everything to get her attention, but the only thing that worked was telling her about Mikey! So how come she doesn't care?"

"You told her about Mikey?" Claire was shocked and completely mad now. Her voice was shaky when she spoke again. "You had no right to do that, K-Mart!"

"Well, what you gonna do? Ground me?"

The redhead looked at the teen in utter disbelief, trying to manage her anger at the same time she tried to process what K-Mart had just told her. She let out a low sigh and turned the face the entrance of the city. The road was completely engulfed by darkness, and it was almost impossible to tell the sky apart from the ground.

She loved her convoy, but that was one of the few moments she wished no one depended on her so she could just start the Hummer and leave without destination or purpose in mind.

"Okay, look…" K-Mart's voice brought her back to the interior of the Hummer. "I'm sorry I upset you… but I don't regret it. If that will cost me never getting close to a gun, fine… I can handle it. But don't make it cost your trust in me, please, Claire. I know you're miserable behind those smiles, and _that_ I can't handle."

Claire closed her eyes and reached out for K-Mart's hand. They entwined their fingers and stared at the dark scenario in front of them.

"I'll have Chris finding a gun for you tomorrow," the redhead said quietly, sensing the teen squirm softly next to her. She didn't have to look to know it, but K-Mart was grinning widely. "Just promise me you'll give this whole thing a break."

"If that's what you want."

**XXX**

It felt like she had closed her eyes for a second inside the Hummer and now the sun was already burning her skin through the window. K-Mart spared lazily and rubbed her eyes, when she saw something black perched on the net. She drew her face closer to it and a black bird stared back at her. Except that it didn't seem to have proper eyesight with those milky white orbs-

"CLAIRE!" K-Mart yelled when the bird screeched and tried to pick her through the net gaps.

Claire jumped from her seat, her cap falling on her lap as she frantically searched for the commotion. It took her a few seconds to recompose and focus on the teen and the weird bird. She put her finger across her lips to indicate silence and lowered her head to check the outside through the front window.

That was the creepiest thing she had seen in a while; a huge flock of black birds perched on the electricity wires and on top of the vehicles. More of them seemed to wait for something over the roof of the police station, and a few still hovered in circles around the extinguished fire.

Claire reached out for the radio as quietly as she could.

"Chris."

The answer came only a few seconds later. "_I see them_."

"Is everyone else inside the truck? The kids?"

"_Yeah, don't worry about that-"_

Claire heard clattering on the other side, and the birds lift off, cawing madly. They got in formation, like an immense dark arrow in the sky, and dove for the vehicles. K-Mart covered her ears as they started picking the nets and the front window. The sound of a thousand beaks was deafening, and their strength combined would eventually break the barrier and they would be able to attack the leader and the teen.

"Why are they doing this?" K-Mart yelled over the noise.

"They've probably been feeding on dead flesh," Claire pulled the girl with her to the center of the car as far from the windows as she could. "They're all infected…"

"_Claire! Claire!_" Chris called on the radio.

"What?" she answered in a rather raspy tone.

"_Start the car and make a turn. Try to attract the flock to the campfire. Chase's going to burn them while they're still in the air_."

"Sounds like a plan," the redhead grumbled, handing the radio to the teen and maneuvering the steering wheel. She hit the gas pedal and for the first time the Hummer failed her. The engine roared furiously, but the wheels didn't pull the car forwards, not even an inch.

"_Why are you stuck?_"

"Because we want to," K-Mart snapped. "How can we possibly know it, Chris?"

Claire could have laughed if she weren't so aware of how screwed they were. She claimed the radio again and drew it closer to her lips. "Chris… Have Chase distracting them. We are going to run."

"_Are you insane?_" he barked angrily. "_You keep your ass in that car, Claire! Mikey and I are going to-_"

Claire clicked the device shut and exchanged a grave look with K-Mart, who nodded in agreement. The redhead saw through the rear view mirror that Chase was already climbing to the top of the truck while Mikey and her brother frantically expected both to jump off the Hummer and actually prove themselves a pair of crazy girls.

The cowboy ignited the fire thrower and the birds quickly flew towards the truck; they soared dangerously around Chase, who started to curse and wave his fist as he spun the weapon, scaring most of them away with the fire.

"Come on, K!" Claire hurried when she saw the boys beckoning them on. The leader dragged K-Mart with her towards the truck, and together they ducked to avoid the infected crows that were flying lower as they went.

Mikey and Chris were shooting the closest birds, and Claire saw enough clear path to finally run non-stop. She shot a few of them along the way, using her body to shield K-Mart as much as she could. They were only a few feet from the cargo door, and she actually saw some pairs of hands ready to pull them up, when hell broke loose.

The birds that were flying around Chase recognized the easier preys and left the cowboy, diving for a mortal attack against Claire and K-Mart.

"GET DOWN, REDFIELD!" he hollered. The redhead threw herself on top of the teen on the ground. The powerful flame hit the pointer birds, but there were so much more of them yet. Chase aimed at them as Claire stood up with the girl, running away from the line of fire. In that precise moment, the cowboy ducked to eschew from an errant crow and fell from the truck; the gun spun on its own accord, expelling raging blows of uncontrolled fire.

Claire felt the heat coming and closed her eyes as she embraced K-Mart, offering her back to burn first. However, the pain never came. She sensed the heat slowly retreating, and she opened her eyes, wondering what could have possibly stopped the fire and prevented their certain deaths.

Claire caught a figure with the corner of her eye. She held K-Mart closer and turned around. She felt her heart skip a beat and then jolt back to life inside her chest.

Alice stood about ten yards from them, feet rooted on the ground as her green eyes gleamed and controlled the fire, sending the powerful flame upwards. The fire rounded over their heads like a ring, enveloping the flock of infested birds on its spiral.

After seconds that seemed to last hours, the fire diminished and ceased completely. The birds were now mere ashes falling over them like rain. Chris had already jumped off the truck and hurried to his sister and the teen; he gave K-Mart a one arm hug and noticed that the redhead had not even acknowledged his presence.

"Claire?"

Claire stared at the tall blonde with her lips parted. She imagined for a second that the fire had actually caught her and this was her mind trying to comfort her aching body as she slowly perished. It was indeed very soothing to die if that was really what was happening.

She then heard the voices of Chris and K-Mart, and she knew she was completely alive. Her heart was working too hard for a dead person. Claire sucked in a loud breath as Alice finally met her gaze.

Her green orbs watched Claire in adoration. She moved one booted foot, and then the other, and slowly she stumbled towards the redhead, until she stood only a few inches away from her.

Alice let out a low breath of relief and smiled. It was the most beautiful smile Claire had ever seen. Alice moved one more step and reached out for the redhead's face. When she finally touched Claire's cheek, she grinned broadly and chuckled.

"God damn you, Claire Redfield," Alice whispered in amusement. She then closed her eyes and gave in to exhaustion. Claire caught the blonde when she finally collapsed.

Slowly, one by one the members of the convoy stepped out of the truck and closed in a circle around their leader, who held the mysterious woman in her arms. Chase came last, dusting his hat on his jeans and shading his eyes with a hand as he looked up at the fire thrower.

"Well, looks like that darn shit could do with some adjustments."

**XXX**

Alice parted her eyelids very carefully. She was still regaining awareness of her arms and legs, feeling the all too familiar pain in her skull as she quickly scrutinized her surroundings. It was dark and the moonlight entered through a large door or window, bathing what seemed to be a waiting room with its silver hue.

She sat up, rubbing the back of her neck, and an involuntary smile emerged from her lips when she saw Claire. The leader was sprawled floppily on a chair in front of the couch Alice was, her mane of red hair cascading downwards as she rested her head on her hand. Her legs were outstretched carelessly as the rest of her body, and her cap was on her lap, heaving along her peaceful breathing.

Alice rested her elbows on her knees as she projected her body forwards, standing unbearable inches from Claire. The redhead suddenly opened her eyes, taking a second to understand Alice really was in front of her. She didn't gasp or jump from her chair as it was mostly expected; it was almost as if she had been only half asleep while the other part of her had remained conscious of Alice's every move.

"Hey," Alice whispered.

Claire sat up straight on her chair. "You're up," she whispered in return.

The blonde offered a small smile. She eyed the leader carefully in the dark, not daring to say another word. Alice was scared for the first time in her life; she feared that another sound would break the spell and make Claire vanish like dust.

Claire held her gaze, searching for those raw emotions in her green orbs, and she was surprised to find them there. Alice had defied nature one more time, and she had Claire wrapped around her finger all over again, like a magnet. The only difference was that this time Claire actually recognized the change in Alice. The blonde seemed pleased to be there.

"How did you find us?"

Alice reached out, touching Claire's face. She stroked her cheek with her thumb, making sure the redhead was not another dream. The blonde felt the warmth emanating from her skin and let out a sigh of relief.

"I didn't."

Claire frowned slightly. "You're telling me you ran into us? Seriously, Alice? Fifty states and you randomly walked in Missouri when infected crows attacked us?"

"That's what it looks like."

"So you're not just an arrogant idiot? You're an arrogant idiot with perfect timing?"

Alice smirked. She didn't care if the redhead really meant it, because she accepted she could be whatever Claire said.

"I'm Alice Abernathy. And probably anything else you want me to be."

Claire's breathing was calm, a lot calmer than she had expected it would be if she ever ran into Alice again, and yet she felt extremely vulnerable standing in front of the blonde for the first time after a year.

"Can you be honest?" Claire asked, locking her emotions deep down so she wouldn't just throw herself into her arms like she did last time, even though the blonde's warm fingers on her face were almost driving her insane.

"How long am I gonna stay?" Alice guessed, the smirk quickly disappearing from her lips as she retreated her hand. Claire nodded. "I just need time to recompose and then…"

Claire swallowed the painful knot in her throat and sighed. "I suggest you stay here and get some more sleep for now," she said with a very businesslike tone that sounded unfamiliar to the blonde. "Stay as long as you want. That's what this convoy's for."

"I'm not a survivor, Claire," Alice confessed, watching the redhead's expression flicker quickly with curiosity. It didn't last long, though; she crossed her arms and merely stared at the blonde. Alice realized it was as much as she would get from the leader, so she took it. "I'm dangerous to be around."

"If you're gonna make excuses, you'd better come up with a better one, Alice," Claire said coldly, picking at the rim of her cap as she stood up. Upon realizing the blonde was not going to speak out, Claire shook her head and spun on her heels. Only when she got to the door Alice's husky voice broke the silence.

"I'm infected." Claire's instant reaction was to unholster her gun and turn, but she pointed it to the ground instead of Alice. "You should aim that at me," the blonde suggested, arching one eyebrow.

"How come you're infected?" Claire demanded, ignoring the second part of what Alice said. "You look exactly the way you did when I first met you."

Alice wanted to know what else Claire remembered about them, and she wanted to know how come the redhead had become so harsh. The leader seemed to have built a solid wall around her, and her eyes were careful now that they were properly talking.

"I was experimented on in the army. For some stupid reason, I agreed to that," Alice added. "I've done terrible things since you went away."

"_You_ let me go!" Claire hissed, her restrained emotions finally surfacing as her face grew red and her blue eyes got drenched with resentment.

"Thank God I did!" Alice said louder, her voice finally overcoming the conversation that had been held in whispers until that moment. "I don't think you'd have liked to see a little girl ask me to kill her because she was infected too! I really don't think your convoy would've made it so far if I was in it, destroying vehicles in my sleep every time I dreamed about you! And seriously, I don't think you need me around now that you have-"

"Now that I have what?" Claire snarled, her teeth clenched. "What, Alice?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

Claire let out an unpleasant chuckle; K-Mart was going to regret that for the rest of her life. "As far as I remember, you said you didn't do happy family shit!"

"Oh, so you're a happy family, now. Are you happy?" Alice asked politely, but with a hint of bitter sarcasm that Claire didn't miss.

"Are you jealous?" the redhead spat back.

Alice let out a low growl as she closed her eyes. She rested her head back against the wall and took a deep breath. "It's just… It doesn't seem fair."

"Oh welcome, Alice!" Claire fired again, her emotions taking the best of her. "Welcome to the world where nothing's fair or the way you want things to be!"

The blonde remained with her eyes closed. "You didn't answer my question."

After several minutes where absolutely no words were spoken, Alice opened her eyes, almost sure Claire was gone. However, she met the ghost of her nightmares – those beautiful but deeply sad blue eyes – staring right back at her.

"You didn't answer mine."

Alice sighed. "If you wanna call it jealousy, fine. To me, it's just bullshit that we have a whole country to ourselves and yet, as much as I try to run away from this, you manage to show up every time."

"This what?" the redhead asked quietly, all the arrogance going away as she stared deeply into Alice's green eyes and slumped back to the chair. The blonde took her time and stared back in silence for a long time, until she decided to speak again.

"This 'nothing' that keeps pulling me to you." Claire wanted to kick herself when her heart fluttered inside her chest. She folded her arms, wondering if Alice could hear it. The blonde leaned closer, and this time Claire actually recognized a lot of sorrow in the harsh lines of her face.

The redhead went forwards as well and braced herself as Alice held her gaze one more time. "I'm happy now," she whispered, closing her eyes the second she felt Alice's lips on hers.

The blonde let out a low, deep sigh as Claire responded to the kiss, wrapping her neck with both arms. Alice pulled her up from the chair and easily hoisted her up; Claire's legs clasped around her hips and for a moment it felt like they had never stayed a second apart.

Alice clasped a handful of red hair; her nerves and senses rose from the darkest corners of her body and sprinted back to life at the contact with Claire's skin. Alice savored her irregular breathing, the errant pace of her heart and her frantic hands trying to undo her belt and her jeans button.

The blonde shoved Claire against the wall, drawing out a grunt from the leader's lips. Alice kept her pressed against the concrete with her hip and one arm as she used her free hand to undress her.

It didn't take her long to finish, and Alice drew back for a moment to watch Claire underneath the moonlight. "God damn you, woman," she whispered, her husky tone erupting goose bumps on Claire's burning skin.

Claire let out a weak chuckle with the compliment, and then she finally managed to bury her face on the curve of Alice's warm neck. "Against the wall? I've been waiting for this for over a year and we're doing it against the wall?" She sensed Alice's low laughter rumble against her breasts.

"Who said we're finished after this?" Alice hissed in her ear, and she felt like every cell in her body was being licked by flames. "I see a couch, a chair, a desk, the floor and a lot of other walls around here…"

"Are you trying to kill me?" Claire whispered passively.

"Not literally," Alice brushed her lips past the redhead's jawline and then captured her lips for another kiss. "Just reminding you that you're mine."

Ogle – love look


	7. Enraged women

**N/A: Hello there! I won't dare typing names here because I'm much of an airhead and I might unintentionally forget someone – so here goes my huge 'THANK YOU' to ALL of you – adorable guests and FFnet users – you all rock this little world over here =) **

**N/A 2: This is dedicated to Elisa. You know why ;) And if it eventually ends on a cliffhanger, LD… that's for you (evil smirk).**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil. Think I might just get a pony to compensate. Or a unicorn. **

**Find me on tumblr: follow-that-convoy**

**Find the Challenger too: keepcalmandshipclairice**

**And may the Aberfeels be with you.**

**7. Enraged women**

Chris woke up with a jerk and almost hit his forehead on the steering wheel of the Hummer when someone slapped his ear. He looked around in confusion, finding strange to be there when he usually slept on the truck.

"Rise and shine!" He found K-Mart smiling sarcastically at him.

"What's with the swat, K?" he murmured, rubbing his eyes.

"You snore like a pig, so wake up already," she said matter-of-factly and jumped off the car.

"Why was I babysitting you again?" Chris grunted, but the teen was already moving to the camp center to have breakfast with the others. He rubbed his sore neck, wondering how Claire never noticed it was sleeping in the Hummer that got her all moody when she woke up.

He gruffly got out of the car and slammed the door shut. However, something on the back seat caught his attention. Even after the outbreak and this life on constant run, Claire had always been careful with cars, and he thought it was strange when he saw what seemed like a pile of rubbish in there. Chris was going to check it, but then he heard Chase calling out.

"Howdy, Redfield," he took off his hat and then put it back on as he approached the Hummer. "The guys found shovels inside an abandoned supermarket. Guess we can dig all the sand and get this little monster moving again."

"Claire will appreciate that," Chris nodded, patting the cowboy's shoulder friendly. "And we'd better relocate the truck. The sand might accumulate there too."

Chase nodded, squinting at the bright sunlight. "Is Claire up already?"

"Haven't seen her yet. She said she'd spend the night there," Chris said, tilting his head to indicate the police station. "Apparently there's a lot of her little excursion to Umbrella that she didn't share with us."

"Holy shit," Chase hissed, shaking his head in agreement. "What the goddamn was that about?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," the older Redfield grunted, taking the lead to join the group for breakfast and the usual division of daily tasks.

**XXX**

It was very unusual for her to wake up with that sensation. It felt warm, but not scalding like the sun, and her body seemed properly rested even though she knew her arms and legs were pretty tired. She slowly parted her eyelids, meeting green eyes that watched her carefully.

Claire smiled widely, sparing lazily on the couch as Alice kept ogling her. The blonde sat on the same chair the leader had sat last night, and she was already fully dressed.

"Your hair never gets straightened up?" the redhead asked in a sleepy voice as she noticed the blonde's unruly hair.

Alice grinned and chuckled. "It's part of the charm," she said huskily.

"People will know you got laid."

"If I leave the building with you, they will not even notice my hair."

Claire hoisted her upper body to look at her image on a shard of glass that still hung on the wall. She was a mess – her lips were slightly sore and her hair a total disaster of entangled red wads. Not to mention the bite marks.

"_Fuck_, Alice!" Claire groaned, checking her shoulders for more signs of what remained from last night.

"You say that a lot," the blonde teased, folding her arms as the redhead rolled her eyes and fumbled for her clothes.

Claire could not help feeling she was absolutely desired; every clothing item that she put back on seemed to melt with Alice's glare. Usually she hated when people invaded her personal space – Alice was the only exception. She was the only one who could gruffly hiss orders to her, and the only one capable of literally destroy each and every barrier Claire had built up against the world.

"I had expected you'd be gone by now," the redhead said, zipping up her pants.

"Well, those days of escaping through the window are long gone," Alice joked, trying to ignore the fact that she wanted to yank those jeans away from Claire's thighs all over again. "I stay for breakfast now."

Claire smiled softly. "You could stay always."

Alice's lips turned into a grimace that she tried to hide by hanging her head. She scavenged her pockets instead, and produced a pack of Marlboros. "Missed these little guys?"

"You're fucking kidding me," Claire whispered with a smirk as she took it and quickly picked one. Alice lit it for her and watched intently as the redhead closed her eyes to savor the first drag. "God, I love you."

Claire's eyes shot open the second she said that. Alice's expression was unreadable, and she avoided the leader's stare of panic by playing with the rim of her hat.

"I didn't mean it like that," Claire hurried to explain, standing up and frantically searching for her cap. "I… crap… Where's it?" she hissed, utterly mortified with herself and Alice's silence. "Seriously, you don't have to worry about that."

"I'm not," the blonde finally spoke. Claire looked up at her, and she felt the growing blush on her cheeks when Alice held her gaze. The older woman's face remained impassible, even though the leader could almost glimpse a suggestive glow in her green eyes.

"Good," Claire breathed, giving up on her cap and admitting they both could do with some group socialization instead of the awkward tension. "I'm gonna-" she pointed over her shoulder.

"Yeah, they might be wondering where you are."

"Right," the redhead nodded and sighed, taking point to leave the police station and feeling that damn warmth on the back of her head as Alice walked slightly behind her.

**XXX**

The convoy, despite the losses and new adhesions, had kept a routine that no one tried to change over the last four years. Claire thought it gave them the idea of normalcy, just like little habits people used to have when life was still dictated by the clock. They usually shared tasks according to people's aptitudes, and that had always worked well, thank you very much. Except that today no one seemed to care about the routine.

Everyone had gathered around the extinguished fire and chatted frantically, not even caring to whisper or to be discreet. They wanted answers about who was the mysterious woman that had controlled the flames and killed all the infected crows.

K-Mart went past several of them, getting slightly annoyed with their comments. She saw Chris and Chase approach the group, looking intrigued as well. The older Redfield drew closer when he saw the teen standing there.

"Seen Claire?"

"Not yet," K-Mart shook her head.

"There she is," Chase pointed ahead, and both Chris and the teen turned around. Claire came towards them with Alice right behind her, both trying to be serious and business-like but failing miserably as they walked like two awkward teenagers.

"Elegance zero," the girl grunted, rolling her eyes.

"What?" Chris asked.

She ignored him and advanced towards the leader, to whom she merely spared a smug smile. K-Mart stopped in front of Alice and checked her out from head to toes. The woman offered her a sly grin as she took her hat off, revealing the usual sandy blond mess of unruly hair. The teen spotted the bracelet she made for Alice over a year ago on her right wrist.

"You care," K-Mart said with a small nod and a smile of relief. She looked over at Claire, who was being adorably ridiculous with the flush on her cheeks. "And you're welcome."

"You're such a brat, K," Claire grunted as Alice chuckled, and reached out for the cap that stood perched on the teen's head. "And this is mine, thank you."

The three of them were so enthralled with the reunion that it took a loud '_Ahem' _from Chris to bring them back to the small audience that watched their exchange. The older Redfield grinned at his sister when she caught his gaze.

"I'm sorry," she cleared her throat and turned the leader mode on. "Everyone's here? Well… I want you to meet my friend, Alice. She's staying with us for a while, and…"

"And then we'll see how things go from here," K-Mart interrupted her sister, pulling Alice by the hand and dragging her towards Chris and Chase. "Boys, this is Alice. She's the one who saved our asses from Umbrella."

Chase offered a hand and nodded shortly; the fact that the strange woman had saved the girl and Claire was enough for him. After shaking hands with the blonde, the cowboy went to apologize with Claire for the accident with the fire machine. Chris had a slight frown when Alice looked at him; he scrutinized her carefully, and the blonde simply waited. She understood his reasons. It was hard not to get overprotective around Claire and K-Mart.

"So you saved my sisters twice," he said slowly. Alice just shrugged and took the gloved hand he abruptly offered. She noticed the looped middle finger and how his narrowed eyes were the same shade of blue as Claire's. "Name's Chris."

She squeezed her lips into a shy, swift smile and looked around for K-Mart and Claire. The teen seemed absolutely happy as she hooked one arm with Chris's and eagerly retold him the story of how Alice jumped over the fence and carried her, making the blonde wonder why the girl would have kept that story to herself for so long. Claire was in the middle of a circle, smiling at the people and talking to them.

Alice didn't need a privileged sense of sight to spot the blond young man that stood apart from the group, leaning against the truck with his arms folded. He watched Claire with resentment and for a minute his eyes fell on Alice. She held his gaze defiantly, because she already knew who he was. And funny enough, it seemed like he knew who _she_ was too.

Alice felt her blood boil in her veins, but she had to control herself. Claire's efforts to reassure the group that it was safe to have her around would be good as shit if suddenly the guy's neck snapped and he dropped dead on the ground with one command of her brain.

He turned away and put his sunglasses back on, entering the truck's cabin to grab his gun. He tucked it on his belt rather fiercely and made his way among the destroyed buildings of the city. Alice felt her nerves showing when she looked back and saw Claire following him with her eyes, a subtle expression of concern covering her face.

Just as if their minds were connected, Claire turned around and found Alice's unhappy face. From far she could tell the blonde was struggling with her fury, hiding it at any cost, but Claire knew better. It was there, in every trace of her harsh expression.

The redhead opened her mouth to speak, but Alice had given her back to her and started to walk away towards the cowboy; there was a very quick exchange of words and he indicated the machine attached to the cargo compartment. He watched Alice easily climb the rusty stair steps and followed her to the top of the truck.

Claire closed her eyes in frustration. Having 'team Alice' bugging Mikey was one thing, but having the real Alice murdering him was something else entirely. No matter how much she hated the idea, she knew she would have to talk to them and beg for truce if necessary. When she saw the weapon spitting fire like a raging dragon, Claire decided to start with Mikey.

**XXX**

"It's our chance, you know."

Chris watched the blonde woman on top of the truck, making a lot more of damage than they had seen the day before, and then he looked down at K-Mart. "You think Alice can convince Claire?"

"Oh, I don't think. I know."

Chris frowned at the teen. "Well, I wish her luck. Claire's grumpy in the morning, cigarette-deprived-bitch by lunch and gloom at night, meaning it's never a good time to talk about Alaska with her."

"It was then, Chris. Now she has cigarettes and… well, Alice," K-Mart said.

"What do you mean, she has-?" the frown changed to a surprised expression. He looked up at Alice, who was completely mastering the fire thrower with mental powers. "You're not saying… My sister and… her-?"

The teen shrugged, and Chris remained silent for a long time. Alice jumped from the truck and landed powerfully on the dusty street, cracking the asphalt around her feet.

"It's her, then," he finally spoke, observing the blonde's lack of manners as she lit a cigarette.

"Come on, you're not going to be pissed about that, are you? Claire's perfectly happy with her," K-Mart pulled him towards the police station. "You were going to find me a gun, remember?"

"Yeah, let's go," Chris said vaguely, looking at Alice for a little longer as they walked. He could totally kick Mikey's ass, but that woman's? He might as well admit she had saved his sisters' lives and that earned his respect – or he just felt scared that she could actually turn him inside out.

The cool shades of the police station felt refreshing against their heated skin. Chris grabbed the huge suitcase from underneath a metal cabinet and dropped it heavily over the desk. He matched the lockers' combination and opened it, revealing a small arsenal the convoy had collected along the years.

K-Mart's eyes were sparkling at the sight. "Wow," she whispered in awe. "Can I pick, like, whatever I want?"

"Go for the lighter ones, at first. But sure, it's your pick."

"This one?" she held up a carabineer.

"No, it's too heavy for you."

"How about this?" K-Mart scavenged the suitcase and took out a machine gun.

"Heavier."

"Why did you say I could pick whatever I liked if I _can't_ pick?" she snapped, folding her arms.

"Did you even listen to me? Go for the light ones!" Chris snapped back, fumbling the case himself and getting a small pistol. "This is what I'm talking about, see? Small, light and-"

"Where did that come from? Military Barbie?" K-Mart interrupted him with a sarcastic tone.

Chris was just about to retort when a loud clatter caught their attention. His first instinct was to grab the unloaded gun and advance to the entrance hall. Alice stood there, cursing under her breath as she hoisted the coat hanger back to its standing position.

"Sorry," Alice mumbled when she saw him and K-Mart. "I didn't see this… Oh!" she let out a low chuckle and held up both hands when she noticed the gun pointed at her. "Please, don't squish."

Chris rolled his eyes at K-Mart's fit of giggles. "Yeah, you keep laughing and I'm done helping you with this, K-Mart!"

"What are you two doing?" Alice asked. She needed a distraction or she would blow up something. Claire had said she loved her. But not like that. She might be just lying, but Alice had no idea how she felt either way.

"We were supposed to find a gun for me," the teen said, pulling Alice inside. "Chris said I could choose it, and then it turned out he was the one deciding what I could actually take."

Alice thought it could be interesting, so she turned to Chris. "What you got?"

He silently tilted his head to indicate the crate over the desk, feeling rather curious about what that woman was going to say. Alice didn't even touch the guns; she stared avidly at them for less than a minute and took one out, throwing it at K-Mart.

"Are you crazy?" Chris said in disbelief as the girl ogled the gun like most survivors peered at food when they found it. "Why would she need an Uzi?"

"K-Mart is a badass, she can handle it," Alice said, winking at the girl, who beamed. "You have her starting with a simple pistol and she'll have more trouble adjusting to more potent weapons later."

Chris was going to argue, but he stopped just in time. That would be exactly what he'd say if it were Claire choosing a lame gun for K-Mart just because she was young. "Fair point," he conceded, not exactly sure why he didn't manage to be resistant with Alice. "Listen…"

"I'm not staying long," Alice interrupted at his visible discomfort. "I just ran into you, I didn't plan on-"

"Don't get me wrong, you did scare the shit out of most of us," he smirked. "But actually I was gonna ask you a favor."

The blonde blinked several times, surprised that she was not being rejected even though she pulled quite a weird show in front of everyone the day before and another one only a few minutes ago. Maybe that was a Redfield dysfunctional gene, trusting freaks like herself.

"What do you need?"

"We can't stay here forever," Chris said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "K-Mart showed me your notebook, and… Well, it does sound like a plan."

"It says it's free of infection, but I can't guarantee that," Alice said with a deep tone. "You're considering it?"

"It's been a while," he nodded. "But Claire could not even see this notebook. And she won't hear a word we say about Alaska."

"I think I know why," the blonde murmured quietly.

"Can you talk to her about it? First it was infected people, now birds… What else is there that's infected and we don't know?"

Alice clenched her teeth. Well, _she_ was infected. After considering it for a moment, she finally nodded. "I'll talk to her about it."

"Thank you."

She shrugged and shoved her hands into her pockets. "So… Is there anything I can do to help? It seems you've got a lot to do over here."

"Yeah," Chris nodded in agreement. "Let's grab some ammo inside the Hummer and then I'll show you around. We're scavenging basements and deposits that were sealed. It's our only chance to find food, so you could help us break walls and stuff. It would be quicker."

Alice chuckled deeply at his remark. The three of them left the station and walked towards the Hummer. Alice watched Chris and K-Mart greeting people and interacting with each other. She noticed how the teen seemed slightly taller since that day in Nevada and how her manners were still full of mirth and laughter despite everything that happened to her.

It was the first time Alice actually saw the Hummer since she got there, and it brought back memories of the day Claire and her met. It felt like another life, because she had changed too much since then. Chris unlocked the back of the car and opened a smaller trunk. He collected three magazines for K-Mart's Uzi and handed them to her.

"Take good care of those. I'll teach you how to load it in the afternoon, when we're finished with the sweeping."

Alice got distracted as she peered at the contents of the back seat of the yellow vehicle. It only took her a second to locate and recognize the duffel bag she had handed to K-Mart the day she left her and Claire. She had no idea why the redhead would have kept it, but she could not explain why she didn't get rid of the bracelet K-Mart gave her either. She had thought it was a little stupid to walk around with a smiley face on her wrist, but the loneliness had forced her to keep that, her unique, frail link with people that had actually cared about her.

And her own human weakness made her keep the most odd treasures inside her small bag – a hair peg that had been Angie's and Jill's broken walkie-talkie. The only person she carried only in her memory was Claire. She was in her fingertips, in her clothes, everywhere, even though Alice would rather die than admit all this.

"Let's head downtown," Chris's voice brought her back to reality. "I think they already got started."

**XXX**

He swung his arms backwards and pulled the sledgehammer with all his strength, smashing a considerable block of concrete from the wall. It got easier and easier as he pictured a face instead of bricks. Mikey heard footsteps behind his back, but he didn't even bother looking around.

"Got a minute?"

He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply when he recognized the voice. "I'm busy."

Claire didn't seem discouraged by that; she drew closer and leaned against the part of the wall that wasn't destroyed yet. She had her arms crossed and a resolute expression that got her everything she wanted from him.

"What?" he asked sharply.

"Mikey, I'm trying to keep it simple, even though it's not. Do not make me regret coming over and being nice to you, come on."

He snapped his neck as he briskly turned to look at her. Claire was stunning, and even though he wanted to be really mature about the whole thing, it was impossible to keep reason and his feelings for her working on the same pace.

"What it is, Claire?" he let out a humorless chuckle drenched with sarcasm. "You want my blessing?"

Claire pressed her lips tightly and took a deep breath before she spoke. "I understand why you're upset, Mikey, but –"

"This is the moment you rub to my face that you told me so?"

"No," she shook her head slowly, keeping her eyes on his wounded expression. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. And that, for the sake of this convoy, I would appreciate if the two of you could keep it, well, civilized."

He bit his tongue to avoid telling Claire to fuck off, but then he saw raw marks on her shoulders that had been concealed by her hair. "Had a great night with that civilized woman, eh?" he growled as his stomach burned with anger. "Guess they were right when they said girls always fall for the douchebags. Well done, Claire. Got yourself the biggest one."

"What-?"

"How does it feel being treated like cattle?" he hissed angrily, pointing her shoulders.

Claire frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but she decided she wasn't going to give him the pleasure of seeing her indignation. Footsteps and familiar voices behind them caught her attention, and she turned around.

Chris and K-Mart led the way, the girl chatting non-stop as she gesticulated frantically. Alice terminated the procession, listening in silence. Her green eyes fell upon Claire and Mikey, and a dark somber covered her tanned face.

Claire groaned.

The air became charged and anyone could have cut the tension with a knife the moment Alice and Mikey glared at each other. The redhead took in a breath and started to feel anxiety crawling up her body. She noticed with one quick glance that Chris and K-Mart felt the same; Claire then turned to stare at Alice and silently beg her not to do anything stupid.

However, Alice did not return her stare; she seemed too focused on Mikey, who she eyed murderously. The blonde kept sending daggers at the young man even after Chris took a step closer and pulled her by the arm, leading her away.

"That was a ridiculous idea. Come on, Alice," he grumbled, sensing her muscles tighten like rock against his hand. Maybe he didn't like Mikey that much, but he did not hate him to the point of watching the boy die slowly and painfully.

K-Mart stayed behind with Claire, watching apprehensively as Mikey and Alice kept exchanging sparkles of rage while Chris forced the blonde to retreat. The teen let out a low sigh of relief when the pair was gone. The tension between Claire and Mikey had just escalated to a different level though, and it was actually the first time K-Mart didn't find it funny to be alone with them to ruin the mood.

Claire shook her head. "Let's go, K," she muttered, placing one hand on the teen's lower back.

"We're not going back to camp?" the teen asked as they walked.

"I have to keep an eye on those two," Claire said gravely, adjusting her cap and tucking loose strands of red hair behind her ear. "So, how was it with the gun?"

"Oh, look at this!" K-Mart unholstered the Uzi from her belt and handed it to Claire.

"Wow… That's very grown up," the leader frowned, turning it around her fingers and then giving it back to the girl.

"Alice picked it for me."

"Should've known," Claire chuckled. "But I thought Chris was helping you."

"Well, he was, but then he decided to go all older brother on me, and he just bitched about every gun I picked," the teen explained. "Then Alice came in, all flustered and tripping over things, and she seemed really glad to have something to do."

Claire chuckled, but deep down she wondered why the hell Alice would act like a normal human being when she was the most silent, stealthiest person in the world. She could be many things, but clumsy was not one of her signature moves.

Then Claire remembered that her big mouth had completely disregarded her much pondered brain. She had said to Alice that she loved her. _Fuck_.

The redhead sighed. She had no idea it would be so damn hard to conciliate her activities as a leader with having Alice around. Part of her knew she should not get too attached because the blonde was going to leave, but another part of her still clung to last night's events, and she could not even bear the idea of saying goodbye again.

Alice had found her body's handbook somewhere in that devastated world. She knew exactly where to touch, where to trace her fingers and when she should stop torturing Claire and finally release her. The redhead thought for a moment that it could be herself conceding to Alice instead; whatever the older woman choose to do, she was game, blinded by desire and all those emotions the blonde tore out of her with one look.

It didn't matter, though. Alice was leaving.

And Claire was staying. The annoying pain started to grow again in her chest, but her attention to it was cut short when K-Mart's voice rang in her ears.

"Oh God, this is like Christmas…"

Claire followed the teen's eyes and saw the parking lot ahead. It had been – probably during the outbreak night – a military barricade. There were tanks, Jeeps and Red Cross vehicles in there.

"What the hell-"

"Great, isn't it?" Rick, one of the survivors, approached them with a huge smile, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt. "Some still have fuel, and we found painkillers in the medical cars. It's not much, but it's better than nothing."

"Rick, this is amazing," Claire said, patting him on the shoulder. "Who's helping you with them?"

"Anna, Lucinda and Steve."

"Well, teach Anna how to start a car without a key," the redhead said with a wink, feeling glad she still had leadership to distract her worried mind. "We might take a few of them."

"But… Are we leaving?"

"Not now, but when food's going scarce again…"

"Chase and your brother are scavenging buildings with Alice and the others. I think they're going to find enough to stay for a long time."

"You liked it in here, huh?" Claire grinned softly at him. He nodded.

"I was born here."

She felt her shoulders fall but K-Mart came to her rescue. "At least you know where you came from, Rick."

"You still don't remember, K?" he asked the teen with sympathy.

"No," she shrugged. "But at least I know I'm no longer fifteen. I can have a car now."

Claire rolled her eyes. Leave it to K to be absolutely like the sun when everything else felt so dark. She and Rick laughed at her smart remark and then parted ways. The redhead and the teen perched on a half ruined wall and watched Chris and the guys breaking through doors and sealed gates, eventually coming out with useful things for the convoy.

They both got startled when a loud explosion made the earth quake a little. There was smoke coming out of a building, and Claire decided to check it. Both her and K-Mart joined Chris, Chase and the others to see what the hell was going on.

Alice stood with her hands on her hips and her back to them, watching what seemed to be her concept of a masterpiece. She had absolutely destroyed an entire wall of the building, creating passageway to a grocery store's deposit.

She had taken off her shirt and hat, and Claire felt her heart jolt at the sight of her back. Alice was wearing dark and dusty jeans and a very torn and dirt wife beater that clasped her torso perfectly; her muscles seemed a lot more pronounced than before. The blonde turned around and faced the stunned group with a breathless chuckle.

The second she saw Claire, she smiled at the redhead, who returned it discreetly. However, subtlety was never enough when they were around K-Mart. She nudged Claire and gave Alice the thumbs up. The blonde actually laughed and approached the group.

"Well, it looks like you'll have food to feed an army," she said simply.

"For the love of God," Chase removed his hat and stared at her with a frown. "You're not going anywhere, partner."

Everyone stared at him, except for Chris. "He's right. You could protect us and keep us alive for the rest of our lives, Alice." There was a joking tone on his voice, but Claire knew her brother meant every word, and that lifted her hopes up. Maybe with general acceptance Alice decided to stay with them.

Alice was going to say something, when the clapping noise got everyone's attention. It was Mikey, who had the sledgehammer by his feet as he applauded lazily in annoying fashion. It looked like he had been standing there for a while.

"Cheers to Alice!" he said loudly with a cold smile. "Our savior! Thank you so much for showing up after FOUR years! We've been starving and suffering since the outbreak, but I'm sure NOW this won't happen anymore, because we have you!"

Most of them frowned at his sarcastic speech, but Chris didn't want to wait for the battle of nerves to unroll any further. He grabbed the sledgehammer before Mikey had any ideas and dragged the boy away from the group, deciding the police station would be a good option for guy to guy chat.

"Come on, Mikey."

"Fuck off, you too!" the blond man scoffed, jerking his arm away. He left alone, cursing under his breath and shaking his head in exasperation. Chris searched for his sister's eyes. She merely twisted her lips and arched an eyebrow. He caught the silent message and returned to the group, leaving Mikey to sulk on his own.

"He's just jealous," Chase said to Alice. "We've been fighting really hard for all this time, and now you showed up with those darn magic tricks, ya know… Boy thinks he lost his throne."

"Well, and he did," K-Mart grunted, but only Claire heard her. The leader gave her a death glare that she ignored completely. "So, sweeping's over, right? Can you help me with the gun, now?" she asked Chris. He nodded shortly and then walked up to his sister.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Claire said, folding her arms. "I'll go check the cars with Rick. They found fuel and medicine. Have Chase and the guys stocking all the food, okay?"

He nodded in agreement and left to the camp with K-Mart after talking briefly with the cowboy. As the rest of the survivors went back to their activities, Alice and Claire were left alone again.

"You should go get some rest now," the redhead said. "I think you've done enough for the day."

Alice looked deeply into her eyes. She wanted to know why Claire said she loved her. She wanted Claire to tell her Mikey was just a silly boy that had a crush on her, and that nothing had ever happened between them because she thought about Alice all the time.

"You have a nice team," the blonde said instead, picking a cigarette from her own pack and lighting it.

"They're my family," Claire said with a proud grin, looking around.

Alice nodded, not sure of what to say next. She didn't remember anything about her family, and she had no idea what it felt like being part of one.

"Claire!" Rick called out. "We found water!"

Alice placed her hat back on her head. "Go ahead," she said when Claire looked torn between staying and fulfill her duties as their leader. "I'll be around camp."

Claire silently nodded, visibly wanting to say something else. But she didn't; she offered Alice a small smile and walked towards the parking lot.

**XXX**

It was slightly dark when the group finally settled around the fire to eat and talk. Everyone seemed elated with all the food and supplies they had found, and Claire had thanked each and every member of the convoy for their hard work. Alice just watched the group from her distance, sitting on top of a rock as she sharpened a long stick with her pocket knife. Chris and K-Mart sat near Claire, but they would eventually check on her. Chase had actually being the only one who climbed the small incline to meet her. He left a dose of whisky at her feet and made his way back down to the campfire.

She was peacefully chiseling and perfecting her spear, wondering when it would be the best moment to approach Claire and keep the promise she had made earlier to Chris and K-Mart. She had to convince the leader to leave that devastated place while they still had energy. The fuel, medicine and food were also another good reason to start a long travel; they would have plenty of time to find more along the way. And they seemed like a nice group, and Alice wanted them to make it.

She was just thinking about that when she heard boots against the gravel. Alice sensed the animosity, but she knew it wasn't an undead or anyone slightly as dangerous.

Mikey stopped about two yards from where she was, and watched the convoy around the campfire with a look of disgust. "It's kind of pathetic, isn't it?" he slurred in a thick voice, his accent a lot more pronounced now. "Celebrating food and water like Middle Age people?"

Alice lit a cigarette and ignored him. He took her silence as an invite to keep talking.

"Everything is pathetic if you actually give it a bit of thought. Chase acts like a stupid farmer, Chris thinks he's still in the Army or whatever was the place he served to… And there's Little Miss Queen over there. Thinks she rules the world. Too bad you didn't get the chance to meet L.J… He'd tell you exactly why Claire is the leader."

The blonde felt her blood grow alarmingly hot under her skin, and she had an idea of where he was heading with that nonsense blabbing.

"You don't talk much, do you?" he approached the rock Alice was sitting on and offered a gloved hand. "Suppose I didn't introduce myself properly, now, did I? I'm Mikey."

Alice looked up at him with an expression of utter indifference. "It's not a pleasure to meet you," she muttered, turning back to her chiseling without shaking his hand. He chuckled lightly at her response.

"Well, I cannot say I'm pleased either," he commented. "Actually, it's fucking annoying to meet you, because… You know, Alice, we've been holding on together in this convoy for years, and we always did fine. Now you showed up with your pyrotechnical gig and everyone drools for you. But it was me – ME – standing next to Claire when she needed, are you listening? It was me helping her to keep it together when she was sad!"

"Well done, Mickey," Alice scoffed, casting away a few chips of wood.

"It's Mikey."

"Does it look like I care?"

He shook his head and shoved his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants. He started to descend towards the camp, but he suddenly changed his mind about just leaving the undisturbed woman in peace. "Maybe it doesn't make any difference to you, but you know what? It was 'Mikey' and not 'Mickey' that she called out when she wanted me to fuck her."

Mikey smiled victoriously at his remark, when suddenly a sharp object came zooming past his head, missing his left ear by inches. It nailed the earth and wobbled a bit to the sides; he turned around just in time to see Alice jumping on him with an assassin look on her face.

The pair rolled down the dusty incline, catching the group's attention in a few seconds. Mikey tried to kick her but she was way too fast and a lot stronger than him. They thudded painfully on the ground, a few yards away from the Hummer, and soon enough the whole group had gathered in line to watch them.

Neither Alice nor Mikey were paying attention to the voices and hands that tried to stop them from pouncing at each other. In a second Alice had him pinned on the ground; she glared at him feeling blood on her lips.

"You're going to swallow your tongue, boy," she hissed, striking him with a sequence of punches. The first one probably got his nose off its original place, and he tried to hit her face with his head. She knocked him down instead, hitting his brow line with her forehead.

The second punch made him snarl and spit blood through ragged breaths. Mikey hit her stomach with his knee, and got another punch in response. He could barely see Alice now; his eye was swelling fast and the blood and sweat combined were sticking his hair to his uninjured eye.

Alice raised her fist for the ultimate blow, but a scream cut it out. Hands on her back pulled her away from Mikey, who was hoisted up by Chase. It took Alice a full minute to notice it was Chris holding her by the shoulders.

Mikey stood up with difficulty, wiping the blood from his face using the collar of his t-shirt. He pointed a threatening finger at her. "This ain't over!"

Chris had to clasp both arms around Alice to lock her in place and prevent her from jumping on his throat. She was damn strong, and it took him quite a bit to have her stop squirming. Chase was already far with Mikey by then, even though they could still hear him throwing curses in the air as they went away.

Chris let her go and led the rest of the group back to camp, one protective arm around K-Mart's shoulder. The teen walked along, but she kept throwing backwards glances as she went. Alice caught Claire in her peripheral vision, but it took her a moment to notice the redhead was talking to her.

"What the _hell_ was that?" she yelled angrily. "You could've killed him!"

Alice knew that it was true but her state of fury simply ignored her common sense and allowed her irrational side to take over. "So what?" she snarled almost breathlessly, throwing a disgusted look at Claire. "You don't wanna bother finding another bed to jump in when I'm gone?"

Claire's lips quivered and even in the dark Alice saw her face growing red. Tears made her blue eyes glisten, and her voice was raspy and broken when she finally spoke.

"You should have let those birds kill me. It would be better than hearing this."

The redhead spun on her heels and left Alice behind. She walked fast towards camp and soon she disappeared from view. Alice fell on her knees, trying to calm her breathing and her heart pace. Her skull ached and her chest constricted with the pain she caused just because she was an asshole.

Jealousy was a very, very bittersweet poison.

**XXX**

"What are you doing here?"

Claire slumped down the driver's seat and slammed the door shut. "I'm going to sleep and as far as I remember, this is my car."

K-Mart's eyebrows knitted together. "_God_."

"What?" Claire spat rudely.

"You'd think a nice lay with super woman would put you on a better mood."

"I'm _not_ having you talking about my life like that, K-Mart!"

"What the hell, Claire? You have two people dueling for you! Isn't that, like, super romantic?"

Claire blinked several times until she finally managed to answer. "It's not romantic to watch someone trying to kill other person."

"Okay," the teen nodded. "Maybe she was over the line with the punching, but… Claire, come on! She was minding her own business and Mikey went there to provoke her. He teased her the whole day! Chris was teaching me how to shoot, and we both saw him throwing small rocks at her while she cleaned her gun."

Claire closed her eyes and sighed deeply. She was going to have a lot of trouble with those two. "Well, just the same, it doesn't justify her smashing his face like that."

"I think it was superhot, and I don't care what you say. She was defending your honor."

"That's your fault for telling her about him," Claire tried to argue.

"Well, I suppose you'd rather be roasted to death than having your woman fighting for you."

The redhead wanted to laugh, but she just couldn't let K-Mart win this time.

"Yes, I would," she said. "And I told her that."

K-Mart's eyes went wide. "You're so stupid, Claire…"

"Well, she has to know how I feel," the redhead shrugged, feeling her confidence vanish way fast.

"Say that you love her, then, and not some hot head snide comment that will probably have her sneaking out to leave during the night!"

At that Claire sat up straight behind the steering wheel. She fussed about the locker and hurried to get out of the vehicle.

"Where are you going?" K-Mart called out. "Jesus, I didn't mean it literally!"

But Claire was already running to the police station, and she didn't hear the teen. Everyone else was sleeping, split in more groups now that they had other cars for that. She tried to be as silent as she could so no one would wake up, and she ran faster the last few steps to the building.

It was very dark in there, but the beam of a flashlight caught her eye and she saw Alice reading the red notebook. She looked up when she heard the footsteps, and her expression was slightly aggravated when she saw Claire.

The redhead stopped to catch her breath; she was relieved to see the blonde on the couch, but her speech would have to wait. Claire would not say anything until she was sure she would not faint.

When she recovered from the running, the leader sat by the chair and stared at Alice, who had put the notebook down to watch her. Claire opened her mouth to speak, but it was Alice's voice that came out first.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

"I didn't mean those things I said to you."

Claire studied the blonde carefully. Her eyes and her face matched her sincere words. She nodded, that old stupid smile crisping her lips again.

"Me neither. I'm happy I'm alive, and I'm happy that you're here."

"I am too," Alice whispered. They ogled each other for a while, until Alice offered a hand and pulled Claire with her on the couch. They quickly adjusted together, Claire's body fitting perfectly on the blonde's curves.

"This is more comfortable than the Hummer," the redhead commented, resting against Alice's chest. It rumbled softly with the low chuckle the older woman let out.

"Claire?"

"Hmm?"

"You have to lead this people to Alaska."

Claire remained in silence for a moment. "Why are you so adamant about that?"

"It's safer than here."

"Then why aren't you there?"

Alice realized that she would have to trust Claire if she wanted the leader to trust her.

"I have to destroy the facilities, Claire. No one's safe with Umbrella still out there. Wesker knew me. That bitch in Nevada, Ocampo… She knew me too."

"Do you think they have something to do with you being infected?"

"Yeah, that's my guess," Alice said. "And there was Angie and Jill."

"Who are they?"

"They escaped Raccoon City together and they were on the road since the outbreak. Angie was infected and needed the antivirus regularly. Someone stole it from them, but… No one knows there's a cure, so… I think it was Umbrella again. Angie was just eight years old."

Claire gulped. She already knew that part of the story. "What about Jill?"

"She went away and I have no idea if she's still alive. But I do know I have to take Umbrella down. For Angie and for everyone that's still fighting. That's why I can't stay. They might come after me, and I don't want to be around you if they do."

"K-Mart and her family were held hostage for tests," Claire added, playing with her hair as she sensed the vibration of Alice's voice against her back. "So you think they're still capturing people for experiments?"

"Yes, that's what I think. There's a house in Raccoon City you can stay with the group for a while," Alice added when Claire didn't say anything. "There's food, and there's a lake. I stayed there for a while after Jill left. From there, you head to Arcadia with the group."

"Why don't you just come with us? We can start over. Like a family."

"I need to avenge many people."

"You don't need to save the world, Alice."

"I'm not sure why… but I have the feeling that I own the world this."

Claire closed her eyes for a moment so she could take in everything Alice said to her. It was the first time the blonde shared this much information with her. She rolled over so she was on top of Alice.

Alice held Claire with one arm as she used her free hand to tuck loose strands of red hair behind Claire's ear. She stared deeply into her blue eyes, trying to find out how the leader felt about her without having to ask.

It would be very difficult to leave her this time.

"K-Mart was right about you," Claire said with a loving smile as she traced Alice's lips with her fingertip. "You care."

Alice grinned. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, you might be the world's ultimate badass, but you are an extreme gentleman, you know."

"What the fuck are you talking about, Claire?" she asked with a smirk.

Claire lowered her head to kiss Alice. "Whatever made you punch him like that…"

The blonde rolled her eyes and pulled the younger woman closer to her for another kiss. "Just shut up."

The redhead chuckled and then her smile turned into a completely different expression. She sat up, straddling the blonde, and slowly she removed her top. Alice watched almost hypnotized her every move, from the way her flat stomach sparred with the gesture and how her ribs poked her smooth skin as she arched her body backwards.

Instead of hurrying the process by taking charge, Alice simply waited. Claire unclasped her bra and threw it gently against the blonde's face.

"Wipe the drool a bit," she murmured with a lascivious smile that made Alice shiver pleasurably.

Alice clenched her fumbling fingers into fists. She was going to make Claire pay for that later. Claire rolled them over so she was lying on the couch with the blonde on top of her. She unbuckled her belt and hoisted her hip just enough to remove her jeans.

"Your turn," she whispered to Alice.

The blonde didn't have to hear it twice. She threw her shirt over her shoulder and yanked her pants off of her legs, finally feeling the heat from Claire's thighs on her skin. The redhead rolled up her wife beater, taking her chance to feel as much of Alice as she could along the way. The blonde hurriedly removed the rest of it and hooked her fingers on Claire's underwear.

The leader chuckled lightly as she removed Alice's hand from the elastic band around her hips.

"You can't use your hands. Be creative."

The blonde had a questioning look on her face that Claire found adorable. She pulled Alice for another kiss and bit her lower lip.

"You see, we have teeth for more than one purpose…"

Alice grinned broadly, barely managing to keep her breath steady at the thought of what Claire had just suggested she did.

**XXX**

Claire stood perched by the edge of the cargo area of the truck, one arm resting against her flexed knee. Chris and K-Mart stood next to her, talking among each other as they waited for Claire to speak. The leader threw a sideways glance to her right and found the mess of sandy blond hair she had pulled so hard last night.

Alice was on the ground but with her back to the leader, arms folded as she watched the members of the convoy gather in front of Claire.

The redhead took a deep breath.

"I know everyone likes being here," she said. "But recently we've found out it's extremely dangerous to settle because Umbrella is still functioning. They're capturing survivors to test the virus, like they did with K and her family. We were told that there's this place, Arcadia-" she looked up at her brother, who nodded slightly to encourage her to continue. "It's in Alaska. We heard it's free of infection in there, and it seems to be far enough from Umbrella's hands. I cannot make this decision for all of you, so we vote for it. Those in favor, raise your hand."

Little by little, every hand stood up in the air. With a sigh of relief, Claire removed her cap and nodded. "Gather everything up. We're setting camp down and hit the road before noon."

As the survivors chatted among each other, most of them looking excited to have a plan, Claire jumped off the cargo area and watched Chris and K-Mart join the group. She looked at them for a while and then finally turned to Alice.

"So this is it, then."

Alice looked up at the leader, her green eyes screaming things that she absolutely could not manage to say to Claire. "This is it," she said softly.

The redhead took one step closer. "There's a vehicle Chris prepared for you. I think there's gas enough for you to get to New York," she made a pause and looked down at her shoes. That was too damn hard. Last night she had Alice inside of her, and now she was losing that woman all over again.

"Claire," Alice whispered, touching her chin and lifting her face softly.

"Good luck," Claire mumbled, feeling that burning pain in her throat as she tried to avoid the blonde's gaze again.

"Look at me, please."

The leader hesitated and then she complied. There was something completely different in Alice's face, just as if she didn't actually want to leave.

"Don't go," Claire pleaded, one lonely tear rolling down her cheek.

Alice wiped it with her thumb, keeping her eyes locked with Claire's.

"Promise you'll remember, Claire."

"Remember what?"

"That you're mine."

Claire let out a wet, sad chuckle, and shook her head. "It never changed."

Alice caressed her face with a sad smile of her own. "I promise you, Claire. I'm coming back this time."

"How will you find us?"

"I've found you once, didn't I?"

"That was luck."

"It doesn't matter," Alice pulled her into a tight embrace that Claire was not expecting. They pressed their bodies against each other for a long moment. Alice bent her head lower and reached for Claire's ear. "This time I'm coming back for you."


	8. Out of sight

**N/A: Well, thank you for holding up a little longer this time. Now you're all about to learn a bit about Alice's past and something more about Claire's toughness… And people we love are coming back too. Enjoy, survivors!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil. Time to face it.**

**Find me on tumblr: follow-that-convoy**

**Find the Challenger too: keepcalmandshipclairice**

**Keep the Feels.**

**8. Out of sight **

Alice silently watched as the survivors finished packing up. They had added two more vehicles to the convoy, and that was not because they liked to ride all boxed up, but due to lack of fuel to all of them, not to mention oil, water and all the maintenance they would require.

Chris marched towards her as she unnecessarily prepped her car; he looked serious, and she thought he was going to approach her with that goddamned older brother speech she had expected all through the week. Instead of talking, though, he handed her the red notebook. Alice only stared at it and shook her head.

"I don't need it anymore."

"This is for _you_ to remember," Chris said, pushing it to her. "Do not disappoint my sister."

With that, he patted her shoulder in a very manly way, and turned around to join Chase in the truck. Alice just watched him go with his lanky strut, ungraciously wobbling his arms as he walked. She could have laughed if the possibility of never seeing any of them again wasn't so real. She threw her duffel bag at the passenger seat of the Jeep and was ready to jump in, when it occurred to her she had to wrap up one last thing.

She approached the mini van stealthily. Mikey jumped out of his skin when she poked her head on his window, and Rick, the guy riding with him, just remained holding his breath. They glared at each other in silence, and Alice was pleased with the fear that flashed past Mikey's eyes.

"Lay _one _– ONE wrong finger on Claire," she hissed dangerously through gritted teeth "and I'm gonna kill you, boy. One finger!" Alice repeated. "You're gonna wish you are dead by the time I come back."

Mikey swallowed hard as the red hue colored her eyes for a brief second; he clenched his jaw and turned to face the front window of the van. His face was still pretty much deformed from Alice's assault, and even though she meant to kill him at first, Alice knew she had delivered the message.

She went back to her car, and as she sat down behind the steering wheel, her eyes darted past the whole convoy and landed on the leading yellow Hummer. K-Mart waved from the window, and even though they were far, Alice knew she had that expression that not even Umbrella had been capable of washing away from her. That girl had hope, and she had trust in people, and she was laying all her faith into Alice's hands.

Even more reason to keep her promise. She still felt Claire in her arms, her warm breath on her ear, and the screams of pleasure that drenched her brain like a wonderful drug. Other than holding her gaze from her distance, the redhead did not attempt any physical contact again after their embrace, but Alice hoped Claire would cling to the words she said. She was coming back – even if it was to die at her feet.

The convoy finally left, guided by Claire, leaving behind an immense cloud of dust and the fading sound of engines. Alice acknowledged a tingling pain starting around her temples. She fixed her hat over her floppy hair and clasped the steering wheel of the Jeep.

The pain intensified with the movement, up to the point that it shoved her against the headrest. She saw blood drip from her nose and blotch her jeans, and as she growled, squeezing her eyes shut, she felt her brain being scrunched by tentacles.

**XXX**

"_You're fucking bullshiting me!"_

_Alice merely looked up, meeting the angry brunette that had burst into the office with a machine gun slung dangerously on her shoulder. She frowned lightly and sighed; of course she had expected a dramatic reaction from her friend, but well, someone should take that gun away from her._

"_Rain, calm down-"_

"_What the fuck, Abernathy?" she barked, pacing thunderously with her heavy boots in front of the blonde. "You signed the damn form! Why would you do that? That's fucking stupid!"_

"_Well, first of all, thanks," Alice crisped her lips into a quick, bitter smirk. "And yes, someone had to do it. How the fuck are we going to prove our point?"_

"_You're gonna fucking die!" Rain shouted, growing red on the face. Alice kept an eye on her friend's weapon, not caring to respond or even deny what the brunette had just said._

_Rain paced some more like a caged animal, eventually throwing a murderous glance at Alice. They wore identical military clothes, and they even used similar guns, but it had always being evident who had the superior skills in their squad – self-control with a gun in hand was one of the most important of them._

"_We can't. Afford. To lose you," Rain said through clenched teeth, pausing at every sentence. "What the fuck, Alice__?"_

"_Listen to me," Alice said calmly. "We knew, from the very beginning, that this was risky. We knew it, Rain. And I'm already marked here, because of this stupid tittle," she cast the metallic badge over the desk._

"_They promoted you to Major__?" she whispered, picking the object and reading it. "You're my superior now?"_

"_I'm not fucking superior to anyone! Just pay attention… I think they know," Alice sighed. "Not the whole thing, but they're suspicious. Promoting me is an excuse to keep me here all day, to keep tabs on everything I do. It's your chance to make the phone calls and send those files to the guys back at Raccoon City."_

_Captain Rain Ocampo was not a person to be easily fooled, and most of the time she was dubious for nothing, but incredibly enough she always listened to Alice without hesitation. "So you're sacrificing yourself so that we can bring those fuckers down?"_

"_We don't know that yet." _

"_How can you stay so cool about that?" the brunette shook her head in exasperation. "This might as well be your death sentence and you act like you're accepting fucking Microsoft terms of use or somethin'!" _

_Alice looked at her friend as emotionlessly as she could. "I've got nothing to lose."_

_Rain snorted and resumed her frantic pace. The blonde finally got tired of that and stood up, taking the machine gun from her and placing it safely over the desk. _

"_You gotta stop feeling sorry for yourself and act like a fucking martyr! It's goddamn annoying, you know?"_

_Alice chuckled. "You're just pissed off because, if I die, nobody's dragging your drunken ass back home."_

_There was a subtle curve in the corner of Rain's lips. "That's-"_

_The door cracked open and First-Lieutenant Spencer Parks's head appeared by the doorframe with that familiar poker face that got to Rain's nerves every time._

"_Interrupting, ladies?" he asked gently._

"_Old habits die hard," Rain spat, not even trying to be polite around him anymore. Alice cleared her throat and arched one alerting eyebrow at her friend._

"_What is it, Parks?" she asked using her best businesslike tone._

"_Ada Wong's here, and One wants to see you," Spencer said slightly put out with the cold reception._

"_Right. Thank you," and upon noticing he didn't move from the door, Alice beckoned him out. "You're dismissed."_

_It seemed that Spencer was using all his strength to prevent a grimace at the treatment. When he closed the door behind him, Rain turned to the blonde. "Your boyfriend is an asshole."_

_Alice stood up and tied her hair into a knot, and then she covered it with her green cap. "He's not my boyfriend," she growled, punching Rain in the arm on her way out. "Call J.D and Kaplan. Tell them Operation A is en cours."_

_Rain shook her head as she softly massaged the area Alice had hit her, throwing an annoyed glare at her friend. The blonde left the office and ran into Spencer, who was seemingly waiting for her outside._

"_What do you think you're doing?" she said coldly, taking a step back when he offered a hand to help her. "I think I told you to leave."_

"_I just wanted to congratulate you for the promotion," Spencer collected his rejected hand and stared at her. Alice had a bad feeling about that guy. No one knew she had been promoted yet, because it had been less than twenty hours that her badge came to her hands._

"_No need to lick my boots," she turned on her heels and went down the corridor towards the One's office. "And you're dismissed, First-Lieutenant." _

**XXX**

Alice gasped for air just as if she had been choking for the past minute. Her nose was still bleeding, and her heart hammered against her chest at violent pace. It took her a moment to recompose and focus on reality again. She was inside the Jeep, alone in Kansas City, with blood on her jeans and the flow of memories that seemed to be trying to explode her brain.

She looked up as she wiped her nose with her sleeve; the tires' marks were everywhere, and she felt the pain of loneliness for the first time in her life. Never had she wished so much to have company like now. Alice had a past, but she had no one to share it with.

Finally giving in, she fumbled for her file inside her duffel bag. It was time to face the truth. Looking down at the thick document, there was her mug shot clipped to the red cardboard cover, where she was wearing the military clothes she had seen in that vision. Alice opened it and saw a form with information about her, like name, day of birth, height and blood type. Then she read about her abilities and all the martial arts techniques she apparently mastered.

If Alice had done the math right, she was thirty now; it was actually very weird to know that, because she felt so much older even though her body and face had not changed a bit, not even with the lack of food and sleep, and not even with the excesses on alcohol and smokes.

Then a crucial fact that had been tingling at the back of her mind finally hit her. Rain Ocampo was her friend – her close friend, and yet, they had completely failed at recognizing each other in that camp. Whatever they had done to Alice, they had probably done to Rain too, with the difference that the blonde was free to fight against Umbrella while Rain faithfully served the company. There was some serious shit going on if they had Ocampo deferring to their orders.

Alice went back to her files. A seven page document was signed by Ada Wong, Umbrella's intermediate with the Army; by One, Alice's boss, and by Alice herself. It was her contract, accepting the terms and risks now she had volunteered to be a test subject to their new experimental vaccine. They claimed along the pages that the 'T1380' was a mutagenic virus composed by DNA and RNA combined, with thirteen protein substances and the capacity to provide resistance and tolerance to pain, prolongation of life expectancy and activation of certain parts of the brain. Alice smirked bitterly.

"Why would the Army want that, huh?" she grunted, turning the page. "Perfect soldiers…"

There was next a detailed report about the experiment conducted by some Dr. Samuel Isaacs. The experiment name had been added later, with blue marker – PROJECT ALICE. He began it affirming the virus had been unsuccessfully tested on animals and was probably not suitable for humans. His words connoted a serious degree of insanity as he described how Alice's blood had bonded with the somewhat mortal virus and how she turned into a prodigy, a mass killing machine that could have good usage inside the Army.

Next to it there was a letter, which contents and signature were partially blurred by a red, wide imprint that said REQUEST DENIED. The addresser wasn't merely part of the project – he was the virus creator - and was adamant that the real purpose of the T1380 was to reverse or refrain degenerative processes, and not to be injected in healthy human beings. By the end of the letter he was imploring for a recall of the samples he provided. Alice gulped at the sight of the name Ashford blotched by the red stamp.

The last pack of documents was thicker than the rest, and it was wrapped by a rubber band that she removed slowly. There was a surveillance picture of her and Rain leaving the local pub together and three other mug shots – one was the brunette's, and the other two of dark haired men that had distinct posture and height. They were identified as KAPLAN, C. and SALINAS, J.D, but Alice could not associate their names to their faces anymore.

Along with the pictures, there was a huge amount of intercepted emails and printed conversation scripts that Umbrella obtained by bugging phones. There was even a report from the government requesting she led one troop to Iraq having Rain as second in charge. The bastards probably wanted a document to allege death in combat when their bodies disappeared.

She shifted uncomfortably on her seat and snapped the file closed. Alice cast it away and took a deep breath. There were too many blank spots for her to fill in yet; Alice closed her eyes and decided that, no matter what she had yet to remember, she would not like it at all, and her will to destroy Umbrella would never cease.

She picked a small video camera from her bag. The blonde had found it inside an abandoned car a few days prior to her reencounter with Claire. The idea had been to take the vehicle, but like many others, it was out of gas; at first it seemed stupid to walk around with a recorder, but now it felt the only way to register their struggle against extinction was to register things like a journal's entry. She had to put them in History.

Alice turned it on and placed it over the dash. She looked at the small lens for a moment before she finally spoke.

"Day one," she said huskily. "My name is Alice, and this is what is left of the world after the virus outbreak. I worked in the U.S Army, and apparently I was part of a resistance group that wanted to take Umbrella down. I have no idea what happened to the rest of them, except for Rain," here she made a pause as she tormented her brain with the fresh memories of her friend. "She's working for Umbrella, in the Nevada facility, located in the desert. I think I killed her."

Alice searched for another cigarette in her bag and lit it. She saw blood from her nose in her ruined fingernails; she looked up at the camera, watching her grimy face for a moment on the coupled screen.

"I still have to figure out… many things, staring with how we knew Umbrella was doing illegal research. Next, how come they caught us. And finally… Why I was the only one they didn't kill or enslaved," Alice looked over the passenger seat and her eyes fell on the red notebook. Immediately thoughts of Claire flooded her brain, and she felt a mixture of pleasure and pain that eerily warmed her body some more. "I'm headed to New York now. There's a facility there, and I'm going to scavenge it, and then destroy it."

She looked out of the window to the distant point in the horizon where Claire's convoy had disappeared. "Signing off," Alice whispered and stretched one arm to shut the camera. She ignited the Jeep and hit the gas pedal. Umbrella was going to pay for all that.

**XXX**

She kept her eyes on the road, rubbing them eventually as they started to feel itchy. She had to carry on, no matter what; that corrupted, insane world could not have that much power over her. How hard could it be?

She had lost Angie, and now she had lost Alice too. The blonde was an arrogant pain in the ass all right, but she missed her. She missed the snide comments, the acid retorts, and even her silence. God, she would prefer the car engine to explode again rather than being alone…

Jill Valentine sighed deeply, clutched the steering wheel more firmly and narrowed her tired eyes. The fading, yellow marks on the asphalt kept telling her she needed to get some sleep. Her inability to remain driving on a straight line was a screaming sign that she needed some rest, but she couldn't stop on that God forsaken place.

It was not even a place, just a bunch of dust and dry grass over infected pieces of land. Jill saw movement ahead and her dull senses suddenly became alert to it; a tall, lanky figure stood in the middle of the road and she almost laughed in relief.

"Alice, you motherfucker…"

Jill hit the brake pedal strongly, missing the figure for an inch. Her gun was pointed at the man's forehead the second he grunted and she saw dark hair instead of blond. He held up both hands and lowered his body a little so that they could be at eye level. He had deep marks under his eyes and a stubby. There was a gun on his belt, but he did not touch it.

"Not much of a fan of speed limits, are you?"

"Not much of a fan of stand-up comedy in the middle of the road," Jill snapped back. "Don't try to be a smartass or I'll shoot you!"

"Alright," he nodded with the hint of a smile. "Can I come closer?"

"Stay where you are."

He lowered his hands and put them on his hips. "You're an angry woman, aren't you?"

"I said no more funny business!" she straightened the gun and aimed his chest.

"I'm not trying to be funny. Jesus," he shook his head, and Jill registered a light accent. "You nearly ran over me, I'm trying to calm down!"

"Well, why did _you_ stay in the middle of the road?"

"I was running from them, and then – _shit_!"

Jill saw three undead climbing the small incline towards them; she fired her gun and hit them precisely in the forehead. The dark haired man looked impressed at her.

"Nice job."

"Why were you running if you have a gun?"

"I'm out of ammo."

Jill considered it. She had a gun, and the guy was clear. She could also use some company and someone to drive for a while. "What's your name?" she asked, retrieving the gun to her lap.

"Carlos Olivera. Pleasure to meet you."

"Get in," she mumbled, canting her head to indicate the passenger seat.

He frowned, but there was a smirk on his thin lips. "You're serious?"

"Do it before I change my mind, Olivera."

Carlos chuckled and jogged slightly to get to the door. He entered and adjusted his long legs, exhaling deeply. "God, it's been a while that I don't know what's sitting on a fancy ride…"

"Don't get too used to that," Jill said, starting the car.

"I won't. But thank you."

Jill was starting to admit he was a nice person, when he glared deeply at her and looked surprised. "_What_?"

"You're Jill Valentine."

"How do you know that?" she asked, suddenly picking her gun and averting her eyes from the road.

"I remember when they suspended you from R.C.P. Your face was in every newspaper," he laughed lightly, staring out of the window. "I was in U.B.C.S back then, that's why I know."

"You work for Umbrella?"

"Used to. Until they left me and my team to explode with Raccoon City."

"I was there too," Jill said quietly, fixing her eyes on the road again. "In the night of the outbreak." She had no idea why she was sharing this with a complete stranger, but she felt oddly comfortable with him.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Carlos said solemnly. "It was very traumatic."

Jill didn't say anything; he was definitively more talkative than Alice, but he seemed good enough to stay with her. Carlos remained silent for a while, until he searched for something inside his Velcro pocket. "Do you mind if I smoke?"

"Give me one and we're good."

"This is to share," he said, smirk back in place as he lit the joint carefully and took a long drag from it.

"Fuck me," Jill let out a breathless chuckle. "Where did you find this?"

"We ran into a plantation in the back of an abandoned house," Carlos said, passing it to her.

"We?"

"My friend Matt and I."

"What happened to him?"

"He's waiting for us a few miles ahead. He's got a gun and we'll steal your car and leave you on the road."

"You're definitively a terrible comedian."

"I'll keep trying," he laughed lightly. "We were attacked by undead. He got caught and bitten, and I used my last bullet to shoot him before he turned into one of those things."

"And how did you escape?"

Carlos smiled at her as he accepted the cigarette back. "A very pretty woman shot them and saved my ass."

Jill tried to prevent the smug smile that her lips were threatening to form; she avoided his eyes and kept accelerating the car. "You're welcome."

"So… Where are you heading to?"

"Florida."

"Taking a break on the beach?"

"Will you just lay off with these jokes already?"

"You weren't kidding when you said you were not a comedy girl, huh?"

"I don't joke. Ever."

"Seriously. What's in Florida?"

"An Umbrella facility that I'm going to destroy."

Carlos was just about to snicker and ask if she was bullshitting him, but then he held his tongue. Well, if that was about revenge – and he was sure it was – he had his own grudges against those fuckers.

"Sounds like a nice way to spend a holiday," he said, taking the cigarette from her. "Give me a gun and I can back you up."

Jill stared unsure at him; she liked his company, but that didn't mean she trusted him enough to have him armed. "Don't push it, handsome."

"Just consider it."

The brunette shook her head in exasperation, but deep down she knew she could use some help - especially if it was against Umbrella that she was fighting. When the world was still ruled by morals and conduct codes, Umbrella had been a dangerous, manipulative company that thought they were God, hiding behind the façade motto "Our business is life itself". People truly believed that, and Umbrella sought the perfect opportunity to do what really was business to them.

Now the world was a battle field, a jungle where living and dead had to exist together, Jill did not even want to think what Umbrella could do to them. They were still out there, at bay, just waiting to attack what was left of civilization.

Based on what Alice said, Umbrella would always be after them. In the rare occasions when the blonde fell asleep, Jill read the files she had retrieved, and she had memorized the pinpointed facilities there were still functioning. Jill had no idea what Alice had in store for them, but she didn't really care. From what she saw, Alice would need a miracle to rise and find purpose in life again; on the meantime, she was going to offer a helping hand and start the job.

Jill wanted Umbrella buried deep into the ground. She was going to take revenge for everything they did.

**XXX**

Claire approached her bother slowly as he took inventory of the supplies in the cargo area of the truck.

"How does it look?" she asked.

"Bad," Chris lowered his head and then looked up at the redhead. "We have food for a week, and I'm being optimistic that no one is getting sick and in need of more protein than we have. We're low on gas too."

"We're leaving one of the cars, then. We're less than halfway to Raccoon City now."

"If nothing bad happens along the way, we're still ten, eleven days away from the mansion Alice told you about. So what, Claire? We continue traveling and starve for three days till we get there?"

She folded her arms and sighed in frustration. They were trying to stop only when it was extremely necessary, but she could not deny that those breaks were delaying them even more. They avoided towns and main roads because of the undead, but that was another factor that was prolonging the trip to Raccoon City.

"I say we take a chance on the roads, then. It will be faster," she finally said after some thinking. "And I'm giving up my share of food. The kids need it more than I do."

"Claire, that's not a good idea. You need to be fine if you wanna lead these people there safely. Even if I give up my share, which I can do more than pleased, it won't be enough to keep everyone in good conditions."

"We've been low on food before, Chris, and that didn't stop us."

Chris stared at his sister. There was fire in her eyes, and her tone was determined. He hated that sometimes. "You do realize that Raccoon City is our final stop before we head to Alaska, right? RC is empty! It was nuked four years ago, and there's no way we're finding supplies there before we travel, Claire!"

"Alice said there's food in there! There's water too, and it's a safe place to stay because she already cleaned it!"

"Right," he held his tongue and took a deep breath. He did not want to rub to her face that she was again laying her trust on someone that left her once. Chris liked Alice, and he was thankful she had showed up when they needed, but even with his warning, he wasn't sure whether Alice would return to the convoy. Other than his sister, the blonde had no interest for the other people. "It's been months she was there, Claire. Someone might have taken over. It might be infested with undead. Umbrella could be there."

"For someone that was jumping on my throat all the fucking time to go to Alaska, you're sounding like you chickened out, Chris! What's your damn problem? We're going to goddamn Alaska, aren't we? What the fuck is that now?"

Some people stopped their activities to watch the siblings. Chris and Claire never fought, never raised their tone in front of others or sounded so downright pissed at each other like this.

"The problem is that you're too blind, Claire," he hissed, pulling her behind the truck so people would not overhear them. "You're lovesick, and you're not planning right. Things might go completely wrong and you don't seem to care! You're so eager to get there because it's a place Alice will find you that you are not thinking about anyone else!"

Claire glared at her brother with her mouth hung open. It felt just as if Chris had slapped her face, and yet the pain stung her straight in the chest, because she knew he was right.

"Look, I'm not saying I don't like her, or that I don't trust her," he carried on as she didn't say anything. "She saved our asses back there, and she probably had good intention when she advised you to go to Raccoon City. But what do we know about her, Claire? She might never-"

"We're sending a team to sweep the nearest town," Claire cut him before he voiced one of the things she dreaded most. "After we have enough supplies to move forward, we leave one car behind and hit the road again. That sound good?"

Chris sighed. He hated to bring her back to reality so harshly. "It does," he muttered with a short nod.

"I'm gonna go find K-Mart. You brief Chase, Ernest and Rick. Prep them and get me a machine gun. I'm coming with you."

He was not going to argue with her about that. Chris gave her another short nod and walked away to set up the guys. Claire let out a long, exhausted breath as she watched her brother's retreating figure. She saw the teen a few yards away and decided to talk to her before they left the convoy for what seemed like one last suicidal mission before they could finally reach their destination.

"Hey, K. Got a minute?" she asked approaching the girl.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Listen... This might sound a little hard, but... I'll need you to…" Claire looked over the camp and saw Chris handing machine guns to the team. "You're in charge of the convoy."

"But Claire-"

"Just for a couple of hours," the redhead cut her. They had already discussed it once since they left Alice and Kansas. Claire had K-Mart learning how to drive the Hummer, passing the driving task to her eventually during their trip, and she had been clear that whenever ordered to run and shoot, the teen was not supposed to ask questions. "I'm going with Chris and the team to try and find food. We're leaving in one car and the rest of you is staying here. If we don't come back, K-"

"I'm not leading them away without you!"

"Remember what I said, that sometimes we have to do things we don't want to?" Claire asked kindly, hating to put that much weight into the teen's shoulders. "I know it sucks, but I need to make sure that at least you are going to make it to Alaska."

"Claire, I can't do it!"

"Yes you can!" Claire held both of her hands for a while and then removed her cap to place it at the top of the teen's head. "You have my permission to shoot and drive. Mikey knows the way and Lucinda is second in charge to take care of the supplies. They'll help you."

K-Mart swallowed hard. "Why don't you let me go with you and-"

"The plan is to keep you alive the longest I can."

"What's the point?"

"Sometimes there's no point," Claire sighed. "Go get your gun and have everyone alert with their watches."

"And what makes you think they'll even listen to me, smartpants?"

"They will take your opinion into account. And I _need_ a guarantee that someone will try to move these people to Raccoon City. I can't count on anyone else like I can count on you. Because I trust you."

The blonde rolled her eyes and scowled; suddenly it didn't sound so cool to be considered an adult and belong to the upper circle of the convoy.

"First Alice and now you," she grunted, walking away towards the Hummer. "Nice new parents you got yourself, K-Mart…"

Claire felt a lump the size of a golf ball stuck in her throat; she wanted to run and hug the girl, but she would completely lose focus if she did that. Alice's absence did that to her constantly, and she could not afford one more reason to follow her heart instead of her mind. She was the leader of a convoy, trying to guide them well fed and safe to this seemingly utopist land, and she could not commit more mistakes.

They left fifteen minutes later inside a poky car. Claire hoped she would see K-Mart's grumpy face again, even if her sour mood remained for the rest of the week, she didn't care.

They were all very squeezed in the vehicle that it bordered the ridiculous; she was the smallest and took the driver's seat, refusing to be jammed between a bunch of large men.

"It feels like family trip to visit grandma Cecile," Rick said, sitting between Ernest and Chase on the back seat. "Except that no one's barfing or f-"

"Don't give them ideas!" Claire snarled, trying to keep an eye on the road and another on the many guns clattering back and forth with the jerks caused by the bumpy pavement.

"Lucky for you we don't have food in our system to do that, sis," Chris messed with her hair and turned to the three men on the back. "Do you know what annoys Claire more than farts? _Songs_!"

"Christopher, you lay off with the-"

Chase cut her with an off-key chorus of "Old MacDonald had a farm", and to her absolute dismay, everyone joined the cowboy on the singing. Claire tried to ignore them as much as she could, but then they would just sing louder and louder, until she finally grunted the cow mooing to make them shut up.

It took the group about forty minutes to finally find the first signs of a small town. Claire parked and slowly the four men managed to get unstuck out of the car. She almost laughed when she imagined them like huge sardines leaving a tin can. There was an abandoned camp there, and picking supplies was absurdly easier than she had anticipated.

It wasn't much, but they could guarantee one extra meal at least for the children, and that settled well in Claire's chest. She hated to hear their mothers shushing them at night, trying to distract them with silly songs and stories so they would forget how hungry they were. It was heartbreaking to see a kid crying because of food, especially when she was so used to seeing spoiled brats whining about expensive toys and electronic devices.

Rick helped her load the trunk while Chris and the others looked further inside the nearest building. She heard them yell at each other and then laugh, and deep down she appreciated what they were doing. Being there in a small group was dangerous, and instead of giving in to the pressure, they were averting it as much as they could. But then Claire heard something that made her heart stop.

"Funny, Chris!"

"That wasn't me!"

"Chase?"

"I'm out here, dumbass!"

"_Shit_ – GO!"

Claire felt Rick pulling her by the hand and dragging her to the car's door. She felt the icy cold dread lowering to the pit of her stomach when she saw Chris, Ernest and Chase running from a small pack of undead. Convoy's rule number one was to never shoot unless they were more than seven or eight. It was extremely easy to outrun undead, and they knew that the firing noise usually attracted a horde of them. But those seemed oddly faster than ordinary.

They jumped to the car, Chris bringing the rear and slamming the door shut with violence. "Start the fucking car, Claire!" he yelled as he desperately rolled up the window, and the first undead hit the glass with his fists one fortunate second too late. Chris was still trying to catch his breath when he noticed they had not moved yet.

He looked at his sister and paid attention to the groaning engine sound; Claire insisted on turning the key, but nothing happened. Soon enough the other undead surrounded the car and slammed the bodywork angrily. Squeezed as they were, Ernest, Rick and Chase pointed their guns to the creatures as precisely as they could. Claire was hitting the gas pedal and slapping the steering wheel profaning every existing curse word she knew.

"Where the hell are you going?" Chris yelled when she unlocked the door and jumped out of the car, loading her gun and firing the nearest undead. The bullet got straight into the woman's forehead, but others quickly advanced on the zombie's offender. In a second Ernest was with his back stuck against Claire's, shooting the undead coming the other way.

Chris and Chase assumed the other side of the car while Rick stood up on the hood, shooting the creatures that were at a more distant range. It didn't take long for the pack become a horde; the more they fired, the more other ones appeared out of thin air.

"Where's that fire friend of yours now, Claire?" Ernest grumbled bitterly, and instead of responding, the redhead looked up at Rick.

"Get down!" she shouted and pointed the trunk. "Go get the supplies! Chris, cover me! We're going to blow the car!"

A good thing about knowing each other for so long was that few words were enough when they didn't have time to explain everything. Rick swiftly hurried to the trunk and collected the single duffel bag they had and slung it over his shoulder as Chase and Ernest pushed the car in the direction of the undead outburst. Chris kept surrounding Claire and shooting the closest ones as she lifted the hood lid and fired a precise bullet on the gas tank.

Even if she had to completely unload her gun on the car, they still had Chase, Ernest and Rick's bullets to escape alive from that place. When they were closer to the approaching mass of undead, Chris took one side of the vehicle to keep shooting the creatures while Claire took the other side, aiming the tank. The guys on the back gave it one final push and the Redfields started to retreat, firing together on the car.

They turned away and started to run a few seconds before the loud explosion blew up in the nearest perimeter and the gigantic cloud of fire swallowed the zombies. The impact pulled them strongly to the opposite direction of the blast, but that was not even enough to stop them.

The group only slowed down when they could no longer breathe. They were on the road already, almost two miles away from the battlefield.

"What. The _fuck_?" Rick hissed, gasping for air as the others only lowered their heads to their knees. "Shit! Shit!"

"At least we know what car's staying behind," Chase grunted, fanning his face with his hat. "Along with the only radio we had."

Claire looked up at her brother, shading her eyes from the sun with her hand, and the silent exchange between them proved they had not lost their tune just because of the earlier fight. The Redfield siblings were thinking exactly the same thing.

"That was an ambush," Chris said quietly, and every pair of eye, except for Claire's, was on him.

"What?" Rick spat. "Who would set us up in this God forsaken world?"

"Umbrella," the redhead answered him. "That is obvious. I just don't know how they're doing it."

"Well, let's keep moving then," Ernest spoke for the first time. "I don't wanna stay here to find out."

"Yeah, and it would be nice if Mr. Yodeling pants could keep his singing to himself this time," Claire said, swatting Chase in the arm as she passed by to take the lead.

"No offense, but maybe we could use him to scare the undead away?" Rick suggested.

"None taken," the cowboy put his hat back on his head. "I'll be quiet, enjoying a silent walk. My flattened ass appreciates it."

"Good. How far are we from the convoy?" Ernest asked Claire, joining her at the front.

Claire looked at him with an honest grimace. "Far."

"Good thing K-Mart is as stubborn as you, because there's no way we're getting there in one hour."

**XXX**

"We have to do something," K-Mart heard Lucinda talking to a small group of adults. "It's been what, three hours?"

"If something kept them, they would've sent a transmission by now, right?" one guy asked, scratching the back of his neck and finally spotting an angry looking teenager behind Lucinda. "Heard anything from them, K-Mart?"

"No, but I heard you," she spat. K-Mart was feeling slightly more edgy than usual, and part of it was caused by the reminiscent anger towards Claire for her last decision. "We're not doing anything about it!"

Lucinda took one step closer to her, trying to look motherly and understanding. "Look, just because Claire and that woman think Alaska is a safe bet, it doesn't mean it is, honey."

"Her name is Alice," the teen snarled. "And there was voting for it! Neither Claire nor Alice chose it for you! It's because of them that I'm alive, and it's because of them that you had food for a month!"

"Why are you even standing up for her? She's not here!" Lucinda retorted, sounding cold and showing her true colors. She has been displeased with Alice's presence in the convoy before, but she had been careful to hide it until now. "The point is, Claire and the other guys are not coming back and we can't wait here forever! There are children in this convoy, we can't-"

"You can go with them, if you're so good and able to take care of everyone like Claire does," K-Mart once again interrupted her. "But I'm staying. There's no way I'm following _you_!"

"K-Mart, that's-"

"I'm staying with her."

Both women and the guys looked around. Mikey drew near very slowly, hands in the pockets of his cargo pants. He was squinting due to the strong sunlight, but his stare was on Lucinda.

"Unless you can drive a truck, I suggest you start looking for more cars to fit everyone you're taking with you," the blond guy said. His nose was slightly off center and there was still a small cut on his lower lip.

K-Mart was so mad that she could not even appreciate the support properly. "I can handle it!" she hissed at him.

Mikey offered her a small, bitter smile. "Just because she let you take her place it doesn't mean you have to act like her, K-Mart. Sometimes you can let people help."

"That's funny coming from you," the teen said with arrogance. "Took you a broke nose to have your brain functioning?"

Mikey rolled his eyes as the group merely watched their plan of survival turn into a personal bickering. He knew K-Mart was growing old, developing her own opinion and having her character almost fully built, but that didn't mean he needed to be patient and pat her head every time she did that.

"We're not going anywhere without Claire," Mikey said fiercely to Lucinda and the two guys that had sided with her. K-Mart cleared her throat. "And the others. Claire and the others. We're waiting."

Lucinda threw him a death glare; she wasn't stupid enough to believe the convoy would actually leave Claire and listen to her. She barely handled a gun efficiently, and Mikey had been her last hope – a very pretentious attempt, considering how silly in love he was with their leader. She stormed away, hands clenched into fists, and the men followed her throwing an insecure glance at Mikey.

"You should grow some balls," he said disapprovingly to them. "It was expected you had some by now."

He didn't wait for K-Mart to suddenly thank him and act all friendly like she did when she joined the convoy; he walked away to keep an eye on the rest of the group and another on the road. Mikey climbed up the truck and sat on the hood, pulling the binoculars up to his eye level. The asphalt seemed to be moving with the illusion created by the heat, and it was completely empty.

He sighed and lowered them to his side. Lucinda was still prancing around the group, and he sort of expected it from her. She was nagging people, trying to convince them it was insane to stay, but minute after minute they seemed to lose interest in her speech. Mikey didn't want to take that situation for granted; he knew sooner or later an uprising might start, and he was not sure how he would deal with unhappy convoy members wanting to leave.

He was alone with K-Mart against them, and he knew his chances to survive with a girl that hated him to the core were very slim. He propped the binoculars once again and felt his dormant heart race with the sight. One by one, they came into view – dragging their feet but looking pleased to see the group waiting for them, Chase, Ernest, Rick, Chris and Claire finally showed up.

The redhead sped up her pace, and Mikey smiled briefly, until he realized it was K-Mart Claire was running to. Alice had really taken her away from him, and then he realized that, from the very beginning, Claire never was his.

**XXX**

Claire offered a small, relieved smile upon seeing the teen. There was a short distance between them that K-Mart ended by approaching the redhead. She had her arms folded and an expression of wariness that looked foreign in her usually bright face.

"Are you okay?" the leader asked with a frown, just noticing that she did not have to lower her head to be eye level with K-Mart anymore; the teen was as tall as her.

"I am fine, Claire. Just… What the hell happened?"

Claire sighed, noticing the relief that laced the blonde's concise tone. "We got attacked by undead and exploded the car to get rid of them. It's been a long walk, but we got supplies," she watched K-Mart's disturbance carefully. "What happened here?"

"You should take back the role you gave Lucinda. That's all I'm telling you."

Before Claire could protest, Chris caught up with them and tried to get K-Mart's cap to fuss with her hair. The blonde easily avoided his assault and removed the hat, throwing it at Claire. "And that's yours too."

The siblings exchanged confused looks as K-Mart walked away. "What's got into her?" Chris asked.

"She's mad at me," Claire held her cap against her chest, observing the girl from far. "And I think Lucinda stirred things up a bit while we were gone."

**XXX**

"Can I talk to you for a second?"

Mikey looked up when he thought his ears were deceiving him, but there stood the leader, wearing her suspenders, red hair fluttering with the slight breeze, blue eyes on him. He stood up and dusted his pants slowly, until he could finally stare at Claire.

"Sure," Mikey said shortly. He kept a safe distance from her, because every time his eyes fell on her and he felt slightly compelled to kiss Claire against her will, Mikey remembered what Alice had said to him the day they left Kansas.

Claire didn't want to stay longer around him because she felt the discomfort too, so she decided to go straight to the point. "What happened when I was gone?"

"Lucinda wanted to leave with some people, but K-Mart stood up against her," Mikey told the leader. "Said she wasn't going anywhere without you."

"And Lucinda simply… submitted to a sixteen years old?"

Mikey stared at Claire when he noticed the hint of amusement in her voice. "Well, K-Mart was well trained, now, wasn't she?"

Claire chuckled and shook her head lightly, folding her arms against her chest. "I guess."

"So… Undead again, huh?" he commented, feeling just as stupid as if he had made any reference to the weather. "I mean, I heard Chase spreading the word to the others."

"Yeah…" Claire chanced one glance at him. "Well, I gotta go. We leave in a few minutes, so…"

"Sure."

"And Mikey?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for supporting K-Mart while I wasn't here."

"I didn't do anything, Claire. Really."

"Not what I heard," she turned on her heels. "Convoy gossip gets to my ears too."

Mikey kept staring at Claire's retreating form; once again he wished he could just go get her, have her. Anything. But then again, the hoarse, threatening voice came back to him, and he punched the truck instead, feeling pretty much the same pain he felt when he hit Alice.

**XXX**

She adjusted her dress, smoothing the silk fabric like she would do in a normal day – except that today wasn't one of those, and whenever her hands menaced to shake, she quickly found an excuse to move them. Ada Wong always smoothed her red dress, so no one really noticed it.

From her chair, her beautiful Asian eyes traveled from Chief Wesker and the screen on the wall, the former being quite annoying to follow once he wouldn't stop pacing across the conference room. A gasp hitched on her throat when the monitor image flickered; she swallowed it, concealing it along every sign of uneasiness.

Leon was on the screen, hands tied behind his back, bent on his knees. His clothes were dirty, and his light brown hair fell over his face, and she had no idea whether he was conscious or not. She heard – miles away, perhaps – the siren sound coming out of the monitor that boomed on his cell, bouncing off the walls and cutting through his ears mercilessly. If he was knocked out before, Leon was fully awake now.

He struggled to cover his ears, noticing his hands were tied. He looked up, rage contorting his face as he tried to find the exit. He probably found the camera and the blank screen, because his eyes were on Ada and Chief Wesker.

"_What do you want_?" he yelled as soon as they shut off the siren. "_Do not touch Ada, you sick fuck! I'm gonna kill you if you do!_"

Wesker eschewed his eyes from the monitor and turned to the woman in red behind him. There was amusement in his cold eyes. "I didn't know you were into the edgy type, Ada."

She kept her face blank and rolled her eyes. "He is not my type."

"Well, then you won't mind if we… get some answers from him?" he pressed the siren button on his desk with his gaze fixed on Ada. She showed no reaction to Leon's hollering on the background.

"I couldn't care less," she said. "In fact, I already offered to do it myself."

"The Red Queen has other plans for you," Wesker grinned viciously. Ada's ability to hide her emotions was very similar to his, and she really could not tell if he believed her or not.

"Another silly chase after those useless survivors?" she asked with contempt, registering Leon's muffled gasps behind Wesker's head. She had to struggle hard with the urge to push his out of her way to see the monitor.

"They're not useless, and you know that," the blond man said pleasantly. "They are the perfect bait to our main target."

"I thought you had no interest in Project Alice."

"You thought wrong," Wesker sat down on his desk, pressing the button again. Ada ignored the monitor and looked defiantly at her boss.

"How come you let her escape with the Redfield girl and a test subject?"

"Don't you know that providing the sense of safety is the key to have people lowering their defenses?"

"Element of surprise?" Ada chuckled disdainfully. "I think you lost it. They already suspect we're behind the last attack."

"Details, my dear Miss Wong. Details."

"Then what?"

"They are going to do exactly what I want them to do. They trust Project Alice, and they're going to Raccoon City and off to Alaska after that. They believe they're running away from us, and it's exactly the opposite. Speaking of which-" he clicked another key on his desk and another monitor flickered to life. They saw a lone figure pacing about the long abandoned New York City facility.

Her blonde hair seemed a little longer than the last time Ada saw her. She remembered Major Abernathy as very skinny and overwhelmingly tall, but now she looked so much more toned and menacing than before. Instead of the military suit, she wore torn clothes with holes and scorches, and also a very western hat.

"Look," Wesker pointed the monitor. "She found the auto-destruction devices."

Ada decided she would keep him talking about Alice; it was a very subtle strategy to keep his mind off of Leon. "So what? She's going to keep nuking every facility she finds on her way?"

"Not just her," he grinned and turned to another monitor. The bluish image displayed the facility in Miami, and a tall man and a woman fought the remaining B.O.W Wesker left there. "Jill Valentine, former S.T.A.R.S, and Carlos Olivera, captain from the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service."

"I thought there was no one from U.B.C.S left alive."

"We're taking care of him eventually."

"And what's the whole point of all this?"

"I'll show you." Wesker tapped a few commands on his computer and soon enough the holographic figure of the Red Queen stood beside them.

"I assume you are ready to provide me your report, Albert," the girl said with her robotic voice. Ada hated her.

"We have Claire Redfield's convoy heading to Raccoon City. Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera are destroying facilities with Project Alice."

"Are they all allied?"

"According to our satellites, Valentine and Olivera are together but on their own. As for Project Alice and Save Terra… you could say they are associates," Wesker said with a malicious tone.

"It's time to take back what belongs to me. I want Project Alice to find Umbrella Prime. After we retrieve the target and deliver them to Russia, I want Agent Wong to pass all the information she will need to find us. I am retiring for some back up now. You may proceed with the instructions, Albert."

Once the creepy girl was gone, Wesker seemed transfixed watching the precision Alice had to move and have things blowing up so neatly. Taking her chance, Ada looked at Leon's monitor. He was pacing on his cell, trying to get rid of the cuffs.

"You must be wondering why we're doing all this."

Ada turned her attention away very quickly, but again she could not tell if Chief Wesker had noticed she was watching Leon. "If you care to share," she said.

"We need her to think she's on a rescue mission. The only way to capture her and have the team returning alive and in one piece is by killing her, and we need Project Alice alive. That's why it must be compulsory."

"I met her before the outbreak, Wesker. She offered her body for experiments with a mortal virus. What makes you think she'll fly to Russia just to rescue someone? She cares about nothing."

"Wrong again," Wesker smiled. "She had a purpose when she offered to be the test subject, and she was lucky she survived the t-virus by bonding with it. I agree with you that she must be seriously insane to even put that to the test, but things have changed. She changed."

"What do you mean?"

"Here's your mission," he passed a black folder to her. "I'd pick Agent Ocampo to lead the squad. Just a piece of advice."

"She recovered well from the blast in Nevada?" Ada asked as her eyes ran over the first lines of the document.

"The P-30's function is not restricted to mind control. It also helps the healing due to small doses of t-virus on it."

The Chinese woman didn't know what to think. She had yet to decide what bothered her more – stay near Agent Ocampo or not having the soldier for the mission in her hands. That was ruthless and could end bad, even for her cruelty standards.

"All right. If you no longer need me, I'll take care of the prisoner now."

"Oh, but I do," Wesker pulled her rudely by the arm and had her sitting in front of his computer. "Interrogate him."

Ada looked up at him, and then at the monitor. She held her breath and pressed the microphone button. "Leon S. Kennedy, you are now under interrogatory. Why did you pass information about Umbrella to First-Lieutenant Spencer?"

He approached the monitor on his cell. "_Ada?_"

"I asked you a question, Mr. Kennedy," she said coldly. "Stick to answering it."

"_Ada, why are you_-?"

He was interrupted by the screeching siren when Wesker hit the button, falling on his knees again.

"Why did you pass information to First-Lieutenant Spencer about Umbrella, Mr. Kennedy?" she repeated mechanically. Leon took a while to recompose, but when he did, he approached his monitor.

"_Why did you lie to me?_"

Ada swallowed hard. She remembered vividly when she brought Leon a few weeks ago. She had to trick him into entering the chopper, alleging to have deserted the company. It almost hurt Ada how easily he believed in her. When they finally arrived in Russia, the Umbrella soldiers knocked him out and took him away from her.

"I was merely doing my job, Mr. Kennedy. You haven't answered my question yet."

Leon looked downright pissed now. "_He told me he was helping Major Abernathy, that's why I told him about the antivirus_!" he yelled.

"He was a double agent."

"_Well, I know that now!_"

She remembered well what had happened to that pig for trying to trick Leon _and_ Umbrella, promising to sell the antivirus. All it took him was stealing one vial left from Alice's tests and release it.

"And…" Ada sighed deeply and smoothed her dress again, knowing Wesker was watching her instead of Leon. "Who told you about the antivirus, Mr. Kennedy?"

She waited for his confession, each second taking a full minute to pass. She should never have allowed him to get so close to her, because she knew he was going to pay a heavy price for overhearing her conversation with another Umbrella agent.

"_I hacked your system_," Leon finally said, a look of defiance mingled with defeat on his face.

"We don't keep information like that in our system," Ada argued, swallowing hard.

"_Well, I guess you'll never know it, then_."

_Leon, don't do this_, she thought. Ada wanted him to say the truth; she had a chance against Wesker, she could maybe escape alive if she acted quickly. But Leon, no matter how much he got to her nerves, chose a very bad day to be a jerk.

_Don't lie, Leon. Give him my name, that's what he wants…_

"_You're wasting your time with me_," he looked more intently at the camera, and for an instant it felt like he could really see them. "_Go ahead, Wesker! Send your people down here!_"

Ada was going to interrupt him, but Wesker held her back and pressed the mute button. "Is there anything else you want to say to Mr. Kennedy?" She kept her face as straight as she could and shook her head silently. "Good," the blond man approached the keyboard and cut the microphone to another sector. "Open the gates."

Ada's eyes instantly flew to the monitor on the wall. Two modified test subjects entered the cell, growling and snarling. Leon ran to the back of the cell and cast one final look at the screen. Her heart started to speed up inside her chest.

The screen went blank. She turned slowly to Wesker, and he had an evil grin plastered on his face. "Out of sight, out of mind. Right, Miss Wong?"

He turned off the other monitors and left the room. Ada kept staring at the dark screen, refusing to believe her eyes. There was anger boiling inside of her, anger she barely remembered to possess or carry with her.

**XXX**

Alice was mad. It was the second time just that week that the Jeep would stop functioning in the middle of the road. Apparently her psionic blasts – she had read the real name of her power in her file – were also a bitch that interfered with sound waves and electricity when the activity was too intense. She thought that by now it would be over. According to her video camera display, she had destroyed the New York facility twenty seven days ago and wasted almost a week to get to Florida, just to find out someone else had taken care of it already.

Maybe it was the t-virus changing her. Maybe it was the lack of food or smokes. Maybe she missed the teenager that gave her the bracelet that survived many explosions so far. She possibly missed even more the convoy leader and how she tried to boss Alice around and failed most of the time.

What she didn't realize was that, according to the recorder date, it had been sixteen more days since she left Miami. Taking the obligatory stops into account – because of gas and because of her brain – she was supposed to be really close to the Arklay Mountains. Looking up and removing her hat, the blonde actually recognized one dry, crooked tree that looked like a vulture.

She tried to start the Jeep one more time, but it didn't even make a sound. "Little shit," she grunted, jumping out of it. She slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and took the small incline that began near the familiar tree.

Alice estimated a few miles of walking, but that didn't even matter. Claire was out of sight, but she had already taken over her mind so completely that Alice could almost hate her for that.

The blonde grinned widely before starting to move upwards. "Damn. I came back for you, Claire."


	9. Darkest

**N/A: Well, by now you probably noticed there's just a faint trace of 'Brokeback Mountain' on it – the idea of seeing each other few times a year and, well, wearing hats and being all sexy about it. But you have to agree with me that BBM is just too damn SAD! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil.**

**Find me on tumblr: follow-that-convoy**

**Find the Challenger too: keepcalmandshipclairice**

**My Aberfeels are in charge from now on.**

**9. Darkest**

Claire folded her arms across her chest and rested her back on the side of the Hummer. Her sitting position allowed her to hide a little bit from everyone, and that was all she needed, just for a few minutes. It was hard to believe they were safe; Claire constantly woke up in the middle of the night, ready to shoot, just to realize nothing was happening outside.

The leader knew better than settle with that sense of safety, though. The years in the convoy had showed her that the slightest negligence could cost people's lives, and she would not let that repeat if she could help it. She closed her eyes, accepting to let go for a moment.

It was exhaustive to be in charge of so many things. She could never rest, never take a second to breath and only think about herself, her needs and fears. The only time she was allowed to do that was when she had Alice around. If it was food they needed, Alice would find it. If they needed security, Alice would provide it. And for God's sake, if it was some rough sex Claire wanted, Alice gave it to her too.

Right now she could do with a bit of each. She didn't even care that she had feelings for Alice. Not having her near was worse than being hungry or vulnerable, and if it was just meaningless sex she would have once a year, Claire was okay with that. But she wished Alice was there right now, because she was too damn tired.

With her eyes still closed, she heard noises inside the Hummer and immediately she knew it was K-Mart. They had grown so close that Claire knew her pace, the sound of her footsteps and every other particular, tiny detail she would probably miss if they had met under different circumstances.

The girl seemed to be scavenging the car like she did a lot these past few days. K-Mart was a lot more silent, less smiley and even harsher than most people Claire knew – and knowing Alice and being a part of a convoy full of people without food and comfort was some experience with harshness.

At first Claire thought it was only about the bad test she put the girl through, but she noticed that, even when they finally arrived at the Arklay Mountains, her mood improved nothing. Chris had said it was hormones, but Claire just threw a scornful glare at him. What the fuck a guy would know about hormones anyway?

K-Mart grunted something and came around the side Claire was hidden. The same way Claire knew her, the teen knew the leader too.

"Why do you keep these things?"

Claire opened her eyes and instantly her heart skipped a beat. K-Mart was carrying the duffel bag that usually stayed well hidden under the Hummer seat. And to her absolute dismay, the blonde was holding its contents with a frown.

"Put that back right now, K-Mart!" she snarled, standing up quickly. "Why the hell are you fussing about my stuff?" she snatched it from the teen's hands and shoved it violently back into the car. "You don't have anything else to do?"

"God, I was just looking for a pen…" she took a few steps back but didn't move any more than that. "Why are you so edgy?"

"I'm not edgy! What, respecting other's privacy is too difficult for you?"

K-Mart stared defiantly at her. Not with the fierce look of 'things will be fine' that she usually had, but an expression that Claire was becoming all too familiar with – an expression that meant K-Mart was about to say something Claire would not like to hear in the slightest.

"You're all irritated again, and everyone's talking behind your back about that," she said, holding Claire's gaze. "You left _me_ in charge of the convoy while _you_ went into that suicidal sweeping! You could've died! Do you realize you act on impulse and do a lot of crap when Alice goes away? I miss her too, but she promised to come back! You should pull yourself together and stop mopping about it!"

"Oh, now my brother has poisoned you with his views?" Claire snarled unpleasantly. "I will not have you analyzing me like that!"

"Okay, so now you're saying I don't have my own opinion about anything? I'm not speaking for Chris, I'm just telling you what I think! Suddenly I'm mature enough to head a convoy, but not to talk to you as equals?"

Claire stared deeply into K-Mart's brown eyes. It didn't matter how angry she was, the blonde really had a good argument. "Maybe I shouldn't have left you in charge."

"Claire, that's not even the point!" Now she sounded utterly annoyed. "You shouldn't have left in the first place."

The redhead frowned softly with the change in her tone and the way her eyes fell to the ground as she said that. "K, what-?"

"You said you would never do that," the teen muttered. "I know that, at some point, I'll have to take care of myself, but…"

And Claire suddenly understood what was going on. She took a step forward and hugged K-Mart without saying a word; the teen relaxed, and it felt once again like she was the scared little girl they rescued from the facility in Nevada.

"I remember now what happened," she said in a muffled voice. "They were all trying to do what was best and I ended up alone. And now that I have you… Please don't end like them."

"End how?" Claire whispered, caressing her hair as she released a little of the pressure her other arm was making around K-Mart's waist. She felt the teen tense up and then they separated.

There was a loud bang down the hill. The blonde girl threw Claire a comprehensive but tired look. People were always accidentally firing their guns, mostly because they didn't know how to use it. It came to a point where it was hard to refuse firearms to them, but sometimes the situation got a little off hand.

"Chris can handle it," the redhead said. "Come here."

They sat inside the Hummer, K-Mart behind the steering wheel this time. Claire waited for her to decide when it was the best moment to start speaking. The teen took a deep breath and looked at the redhead.

"My name is Dahlia."

**XXX**

A blonde teenager was dragged out of the house along with her little sister and their dog. Her mother slammed the sliding door shut and hurried to the front seat. Soon the four of them sat gasping for air inside the van, watching people running and screaming all over their neighborhood.

"Where's Shane?" she asked her mother while her eyes swept past the boring couple that lived next door. They didn't look so boring now that they were trying to fit all their stuff into the convertible they once used to prance around and rub to other people's faces.

"He left right after your father," her mother said with dread in her voice as she tried to drive without running over anyone. "I shouldn't have let him go."

The youngest girl didn't look scared at all, and the oldest envied her a little – she had no idea what was going on, with everyone going crazy around her, her father and brother disappearing and her mother looking positively distressed. She had no clue how that started, she just knew that within minutes, helicopters hovered above the streets and police cars went past their houses.

At first it felt like they were chasing some criminal, but then they heard the screaming. That was when her father told everyone to stay inside as he left to check what the problem was. Half an hour later, Shane, the eldest son of Arthur and Julia Mancini decided to act like the rebel young man he was and left too, claiming he had to find his father so they could leave.

The streets of Athens looked absolutely the opposite of what they used to be. There were car crashes in every other corner, fire that seemed to surge spontaneously and some confrontation with the local police. The Mancini's older daughter, Dahlia, watched the young people that tried to break the barrier the armed men built on the main avenue downtown.

That was something Shane would typically do; he had just turned eighteen and he wanted to join the Army, but everyone said he was much too insubordinate for that. Dahlia tried, but she didn't find him among the group of rebellious.

"Where are we going, mom?" the youngest girl asked, sticking her face to the glass as she made faces to other rushing cars.

"We're going to buy supplies, honey," their mother replied rather upset with the huge number of pedestrians crossing the streets so recklessly.

"Can we listen to Hanna Montana?"

Elizabeth was about to answer her daughter when a large chunk of rock – or a small parcel of asphalt – was thrown in the air and severed the front glass of the van. "No, we're not listening to Hanna Montana, Cordelia!" she said angrily as she swerved the car. "Now sit back and be quiet! _God_!"

Dahlia approached the girl, afraid that her pout would transform into an endless torrent of tears. "I can sing some for you," she suggested, keeping her voice down in her sister's ear to give her the idea of conspiracy against their mother. The little girl positively beamed and nodded in agreement.

Before the teen could pull a Miley Cyrus concert, their huge Labrador started to bark madly once Julia pulled over at the K-mart's parking lot.

"Chilli, be quiet!" the woman hissed, trying to avoid all the licking she got when she approached the family's sixth member. "C'mon, girls, stay close to me!"

The older blonde looked back more than once to the van as they moved further and further from it. Chilli whimpered through the considerable slit they left on the window, rather displeased he was being left behind.

"We'll be right back, boy!" the teen called out, unaware that it was the last time she'd see her dog.

Inside the store it was hell. People were pushing each other, fighting over bottles of water and canned food. She started to feel frustrated with that mess, until someone screamed and hell broke loose. People forgot all about shopping and started to run. She remembered a lot of blood, grunts and cries, and she remembered her mother pulling her and Cordelia in a firm grip towards the exit. The trio bumped into another running people, and bags, wallets and groceries flew in the air as her mother cursed in a strangled voice.

"Jesus, watch it!" she called out as the fleeting couple disappeared around the closest row. "C'mon, baby, move," she hushed Cordelia and beckoned her older daughter. "You too, Dahlia, honey."

"What the hell's going on?" Dahlia asked as they moved past the hardware section.

"Don't curse in front of your sister, how many-?"

Dahlia stared around as her mother stopped talking mid-sentence; she never did that, and the teen wondered what could possibly be so extraordinaire to keep her mother from telling every little thing regarding her manners.

What she saw made her wish she was hearing her mother's babbling instead – the last she ever did. A man dragged himself towards them, coming from the opposite side of the aisle. His left arm was hanging on a strange angle, but it didn't look like he was in pain. He carried a hammer with its price tag, too, and he moved slowly, just as if he didn't recognize them.

"Arthur?" her mother called out, her voice shaky with the sight of her husband's shirt covered in blood. The brown-haired man didn't seem to register his wife and daughters, but he kept coming towards them.

Dahlia pulled Cordelia behind her back, goosebumps erupting in her arms as she realized some serious crap was about to happen. Her father would never react like that; whatever it was happening, she knew he would protect his family with his blood. And not with someone else's blood on him.

She gasped when he stood only a few feet from her mother. If she had known it, they could have run. His milky eyes, the raspy breathing, the gnarls were all too scary, but he was slow, and they could have easily outran him. It was obvious they should have. Dahlia hoisted Cordelia in her arms the second her father raised the hammer arm.

"_Mom!_"

"Arthur? Arthur… honey, what are you-?"

The teen closed her eyes shut and turned around, running as fast as she could, covering Cordelia's head to protect her eyes from the massacre that was happening in every aisle of the store.

They were very far from the hardware ward, almost reaching the exit doors, when Dahlia's heart skipped a beat. Shane came towards them, sweating and cringing in pain. His blond hair was askew, and he had blood on his left shoulder.

"Shay!" she ran to him, Cordelia firmly grasped in her arms. "What happened to you?"

"Dad _bit_ me!" he seemed completely out of his mind as he spoke. "They bit him, and he became that… _thing_, and he bit me too!"

"Oh my God…"

Shane looked at his younger sisters. The store was far from home, and Dahlia didn't have a license to drive. "Where's mom?" he asked quietly. Her silence brought a terrible realization for the eldest sibling.

"I have to go get Chilli, he's out there, in the car," Dahlia said, tears already making their way towards her jaw.

"C'mere, Delia," Shane picked the little girl from her arms. She curled up against the curve of his neck and hid her tiny face there. "Go get him and meet me here. No, wait! I can't let you go out there, it's too…"

Dahlia was midway from ignoring him when he too gagged on his words. She knew it was late when he glanced at her with milky eyes and Cordelia finally had to understand the horror that unrolled in front of her innocent eyes.

"She's four years old, you asshole!" Dahlia cried, advancing on him with strength she didn't know she possessed. She managed to knock him to the ground, but she knew the damage was already done. Her little sister would soon become one of those things too…

Crying, she ran away towards the parking lot, only to learn that someone had stolen their van. She hesitated, turned back and ran inside again. She wouldn't let her family just end like that.

She heard sirens and the police broke in, shooting every standing body they found, and she almost got hit too. What saved her was a wooden counter that she used as shelter. Dahlia crawled on the floor, trying to catch a glimpse of the chaotic battle inside the supermarket. It took hours for the cops to leave.

They called for survivors, but for some reason she could not show herself. Dahlia rested her back against the counter, sitting on the floor in utter shock, afraid to move an inch from her spot. When the cops left, it took her another couple of hours to stand up and take a look around the ruined K-Mart.

She found a credit card with the name 'Julia Elizabeth Mancini' engraved on it, and eventually she found her mother, the owner of the card, with a bullet on her forehead. Next to her was her father, covered in more blood, dead. Then she found Shay and Delia, and then she passed out, having only one second to catch the Umbrella soldiers entering the building and marching towards her…

**XXX**

"My parents were not in the facility," K-Mart said in a whisper. "I was the only one left inside the store, and my family never came with me. At least I know they didn't die in Nevada."

Claire let out a breath, just realizing she had been holding it since the teen started to talk. "K, I'm so sorry," she whispered back, reaching out for her hand and running out of ideas about what she could say to the girl. "That's really-"

"Fucked up, I know," K-Mart completed for her with a sad smile, softly squeezing Claire's fingers to assure her that she was fine. "They're gone, but I'm still here. That's why I hate the idea of you –"

"I get it," Claire nodded, trying not to feel too guilty for leaving K-Mart behind that time. It was very clear that the moment triggered most of those feelings; she was just a kid who had been robbed of her family and youth, and the circumstances had forced her to mature too soon. "So… Why did you need a pen for?" Claire decided to break the tension.

"Oh, a countdown," the blonde said absently minded, taking a piece of paper out of her jeans pocket. "Just my… Alice Calendar."

Claire chuckled, but then she felt her chest constricting into that usual pain. "How long?" she asked in a low voice.

"Almost a month," K-Mart unfolded it and showed the line of sticks she drew on the sheet.

"You really believe she'll be part of the convoy some day, don't you?" Claire more stated than asked as she peered over the crooked scribbles.

"As strongly as you love her."

Claire glared at K-Mart with her eyes wide open in surprise. "_What?_" the redhead snorted, feeling her cheeks burn. "I don't-"

"Yeah, you keep saying that to yourself," the blonde swatted her in the arm, her mocking tone being a proof that the teen and her light mood were back.

The redhead was a second away from telling it really wasn't true, but then another shot noise rang in the air, and Claire was more than pleased to leave the car. She jumped off the Hummer, slammed the door and merely rolled her eyes at K-Mart's smug face.

Claire definitively preferred the teasing girl rather than the sullen teenager, but that didn't mean she would put up with her babbling about her and Alice.

**XXX**

It had been almost two months since the convoy settled in the Arklay Mountains, but he knew they would have to move soon. Pretty much like Alice had promised, there was food and water, not to mention shelter. The surroundings of the mansion were not exactly beautiful, but the dry trees and rocks were the last of Raccoon City there was, and somehow it felt wrong to simply ignore it, mostly because it had been part of his life.

Visiting Claire once a month with their parents was almost routine, just as frowning upon her messy dorm room was routine. But what Chris related the most to Raccoon City was a dark haired woman. He remembered the many days they had worked together in that boot camp, and the many chances he missed to ask her out when they weren't on the training fields.

She always had incredible stories to tell about Raccoon City, and they would spend hours at coffee houses, sitting outside so she could smoke while he just watched, sometimes enthralled by her blue eyes. And now Chris did not even know if she was alive.

The city down the hill had been the first Umbrella swept under the world's hug, and he seriously didn't believe she could have made it. Chris shook his head lightly to push those thoughts away to the back of his mind. Sometimes it was difficult to forget, but having K-Mart around always helped.

He smiled as the teen drew nearer, wondering what she had behind that sly smile of hers. She had a very acute sense of humor, and Chris seriously believed everyone would have gone nuts by now if it weren't for her. K-Mart had grown too; she was taller, almost taller than Claire, and her childish features had developed to beautiful traces.

Yeah, he felt older and even useless as his little sister looked better and more independent each day, and he felt grumpier and more overprotective every time a male convoy member craned their necks a little too much when K-Mart passed by.

"What you got, little brat?" he asked her casually, stretching his legs up to the dashboard of the truck. She ignored him and climbed to the driver's seat.

"Claire thinks she heard noises down the road," the blonde informed. "We are thinking about going hunting."

"With undead on the loose and Claire thinks about hunting?" he asked frowning.

"The noise is really different from undead," K-Mart explained, checking her fingernails. "It's… faster and agile. We are thinking more along the lines of _food_."

Chris rolled his eyes and loaded his gun. He jumped off the truck, signaling for Chase to back him up. Both men walked towards Claire, who was already locking and loading her machine gun.

"Should we keep it low profile?" Claire said in hushed voice, grinding her teeth, her eyes running past each and every person of the group. They seemed distracted enough, and if they were really facing some kind of threat, it would be too easy for the predator; in case of false alarm, that would be a very unnecessary boasting.

Chris turned to K-Mart. "You stay a little behind. You alert them in case anything goes-"

"Wrong?"

Chris, Claire and Chase spun around with their guns at ready, pointing them at Alice's chest. The tall blonde had a smirk on her filthy face as she dropped her duffel bag and her hat next to her dirty boot. The men lowered their weapons instantly. Chase grinned and saluted her and Chris let out a deep sigh of relief, but Claire was still holding hers.

As they took one step back, K-Mart approached the leader and smiled at Alice.

"Yeah, it's her," she whispered to the redhead.

Claire lowered her arms as she surveyed the blonde. She was too damn dirty, and her hair was a tragedy, but that look on her face… It was endearing how she could smile after almost being shot by three machine guns.

The leader loosened her fingers and let her weapon fall to the ground as she moved towards Alice, one step faster than the other until she was in her arms. For the first time in her life, she completely forgot they had company, and she just lost herself in there, her ear on the curve of Alice's neck, hearing her pulse, feeling it.

Soon there was nothing else but Alice's sweat against her skin, the warmth underneath the growing hair on the back of her neck, her long fingered hands holding her, and her soft breathing against her temple.

Far away there might have been a chuckle and footsteps, but Alice did not even allow Claire to worry about them as she held the redhead closer, almost possessively. They split up eventually, staying away at arm's length as Alice took a good look at Claire. For a moment, the leader imagined Alice had sniffed the air around them, like an animal, but then her tensed muscles relaxed and she had that calm expression again.

Someone poked Claire's shoulder. It was K-Mart. "Excuse me," she said in mocking arrogance as she moved past the leader to give Alice a hug. "Welcome back, Alice."

"You grew up," the blonde commented with a proud smile, looking at Claire over the girl's shoulder. "Come on, K, I'm stinking…"

"I live around Chris," she shrugged. "I'm used to it."

"I heard that," Chris muttered as he approached and patted Alice on the shoulder like he had done back in Kansas City, silently thanking her for keeping her promise. "Good to have you back, soldier."

"I think the soldier needs a shower," the redhead said, suddenly feeling the need to monopolize Alice and dragging her away from the group. "And probably a new haircut."

"I don't have clean clothes," Alice grinned down at her as they walked. Most of the convoy members waved at the blonde, understanding that they would be home soon now that she was with them.

"I can arrange that for you," Claire said. The leader was trying hard not to be so obvious, but it was difficult to avert her eyes from the blonde.

Alice, by her turn, kept staring around, like she was looking for something. Or someone.

"Where's Mickey?" she asked coldly, not even bothering to hide her annoyance. "You fed him to the undead?"

At the same time Claire flinched with the crudity, she wanted to smile at the tone of jealousy lacing the wrong sonority of his name. "He's taking care of things like everyone else," she explained softly, holding onto some dry branches when they took the incline towards the lake, when something occurred to her. "Wait a second – Was that why you were _sniffing_ a minute ago? You were sniffing _me_?"

Alice only shrugged. "Lake still looks good," she commented, avoiding Claire's eyes.

"I can't believe you were sniffing me! You're an arrogant sexist-" Claire cut it out when Alice threw her shirt away and pulled her pants down, completely at ease, just as if she did that every day. "Uh-"

Alice let out a chuckle and stepped into the cold water with her back to the redhead. It was usually the leader who ended up without her clothes, while Alice just took off the basics. She was simply enjoying too much the heat emanating from Claire and the way she couldn't manage to pull her sentences together anymore.

"I think you could use a shower too," she said without turning back and diving. The water cooled the hot on her skin and instantly cleaned most of the grime in her arms and neck. As she swan, Alice discovered a new feature of the t-virus – she could hold her breath longer down the water, and she could hear Claire perfectly well, just as if she stood right next to her.

"You're gonna have to try harder after that," Claire grunted, folding her arms across her chest. She followed Alice's trail underwater, but soon she could no longer see the blonde's naked form in the dark water. The leader looked up to make sure no one was peeking from the stones up the hill, and then she turned back, impatiently shifting her weight from one leg to another. Why the hell wasn't Alice resurfacing? "Alice?" she called tentatively. "Alice, that's not funny!"

Nothing happened. She kicked off her boots and socks, slung her suspenders down and unclasped her bra. Alice could only be _kidding_. "Alice?" she tried again, but as she didn't get any reply, Claire rolled her pants up to her knees and threw her bra away to salvage it from the water. "_Alice!_" she hissed angrily, pretty much aware that the blonde was fucking around with her.

The leader squatted at the shallow part, feeling sharp rocks under her feet and the freezing water circling her shins. She almost had a heart attack when something jumped splashing water at her face.

"Hey!" Alice said through ragged breaths.

"_Shit_!" Claire snarled, not even having a second to think as the blonde pulled her to the water with her. It was absolutely cold in there and she was just about to slap Alice when she felt the taller woman encircling her with her arms. It didn't take much longer for the never fading heat of Alice's skin to warm Claire's too.

"You were saying-?" Alice asked, removing the rest of Claire's clothes and throwing them at the rocky edge of the lake effortlessly.

"You're an arrogant sexist," the leader said pulling her arms around Alice's neck. "And probably I'm too, because I let you do this to me."

"Do what?" the blonde asked with a devilish grin as she hooked her hands behind Claire's knees and pulled her thighs around her waist. The leader let out a small gasp at the sudden contact under the water, and her heart immediately started to throb in various parts of her body.

"This," Claire whispered, pulling the blonde for a deep kiss.

Usually they were rough with each other; there was always a lot of hair pulling, grazing and biting. They just didn't rip clothes because they didn't have many to change after. Sex was something borderline animalistic with Alice, and Claire was addicted to the way the blonde had control over her. She actually had a turn on for her hands holding her by the wrists and never allowing her to lead anything.

But not that day. There was too much kissing and caressing to consider it a normal Alice-Claire thing. Alice withdrew a little, her golden hair pulled back from her face. Her green eyes glistened with the water's reflex under the sun, and she watched Claire with something that the redhead had not being able to identify yet.

"What is it, Alice?" she asked softly.

It took the blonde a full minute to answer. "You don't care I'm infected."

"Nope," Claire chuckled, pecking her moist lips. "Why?"

Alice smirked. "You are a very strange woman, Claire Redfield."

The redhead laughed, burying her face into the crook of Alice's neck. "You should stay away, then," she said in a muffled voice, playing with the taller woman's hair.

They remained in silence for minutes, holding each other just like that, until Alice decided to break it. "Tell me about you."

Claire lifted her chin to face the blonde. "What about me?"

"Anything."

"Will you tell me anything about you too?"

Alice merely shook her head. She really didn't want to ruin the little time she had with Claire by telling her that she was probably the one who caused the outbreak of a deadly virus.

The redhead didn't look surprised. "Fine," she shrugged and looked up, scavenging her memory. "I hated Geography."

"Interesting," Alice tried to keep a straight face, but her tone changed slightly with her next question. "Did you have any… plans? I mean, before the world went to waste… You had things you wanted to do but didn't have the time?"

"Me? Hm… I did not want much… Just… Nothing."

"What is it, Claire?"

The redhead stared deeply into her eyes. "I always wanted to have a family. Kids. But I already told you this."

Alice swallowed hard; not just because it was overwhelming to think of raising a family, but also because she would never be able to give that to Claire for so many reasons.

"Don't… freak out," the leader said in a low voice upon noticing her visible distress. "It's just a plan that didn't work out. I'm not asking that of you."

"I know you're not," Alice tried to smile. "Well, I listened to you, I paid attention, and I even pretended I was interested in what you were saying… Can we skip dinner and just get laid now?"

"In another time, you would never make it past the first date with me if you acted like that," Claire said laughing, shaking her head in disbelief. "Douche."

Alice grinned, leaning in for a heated kiss that led her exactly where she wanted to get.

By nighttime, everyone sat down around the campfire. There was a lot of chatting going on, and most people seemed interested in hearing news about their trip to Alaska. Unlike other times, it was Chris doing the talking as Claire sat deep concentrated behind Alice, the blonde between her legs as she carefully shredded wads of wet blond hair with a sharp pocket knife.

Alice had coiled her legs and hugged them with both arms, simply paying attention to the plans, but mostly paying attention to Claire. She felt her warmth, her breathing, and even sensed her care for her. When had anyone in this world cared this much about her?

The convoy went on and on discussing routes and easier access to the Promised Land. Chris would sometimes turn to Claire for approval on ideas, but the redhead merely nodded in agreement to anything he said. The older Redfield rolled his eyes and then exchanged looks with Alice. She got the message and subtly nodded at him.

One hour after dinner, many people started to stand up and retreat for their sleeping bags. Alice lit a cigarette for her and offered the rest of the pack to Claire.

"It's late," the redhead said through a yawn, blue eyes glimmering with the perspective of smoking. "Where do you _get_ these?"

"In Hell, just for you," Alice joked with a small smile. "You can go ahead to the Hummer with K. I'll catch up with you in a minute."

Claire frowned when she noticed her brother looking impatient, sitting by a rock and throwing trash to the fire. "Anything wrong?"

"Everything's fine," Alice reassured her. "I just want to discuss a few war tactics with him for the trip."

Claire didn't look convinced, and Alice didn't really think she would, but somehow the redhead decided to relent and follow K-Mart to the vehicle. The blonde dragged her cigarette carefully and approached the older Redfield. She sat down in front of him, across the fire, and took in the look of unhappiness on his unshaved face.

"I need Claire a hundred percent on this," he said in a low voice. "You're the only one she listens to, and somehow having you here for one damn day has already twisted her mind. She already lost focus, Alice. I need Claire, I need our convoy leader."

"Look, I can't change the way your sister feel about me," Alice said defensively, and she carried on after a deep sigh. "Unfortunately for her _and_ for me, this is going to be fucking messed up, and I need your help too."

Chris looked up; his grimace went softly from cranky to curious. He had never seen Alice sounding and looking so upset before. "What is it?"

"Someone out there is playing cat and mouse with me. Someone out there is trying to intimidate me by doing my job."

"How so?"

"The Miami facility was already destroyed when I got there, and since I left it feels like I'm being followed. And trust me, I don't like that feeling, and I don't like being around any of you. Either this is someone that we want to avoid, say an Umbrella employee, or it's someone we want to have on our side in this war. I have to find them."

"Claire's going to murder you!" Chris hissed.

"That's why I need you," Alice swallowed hard. "I'll trace a safe route for you to go from here to Alaska. I'll check points where you can find supplies along the way, and I'll do whatever I can to make sure you get there alive. But I'll need you to help Claire keep it together, because I know she won't. I promised I'd be back, but I had no idea I would have to leave again, and it… It breaks me to hurt her."

Chris remained silent. It was the first time he saw any emotion in Alice. Her green eyes did not say any less than her words, and he believed she was being honest, no matter how hard it probably was for her to open up about her business with Claire.

"Does Claire… know?" Chris asked hesitantly. "This shit about Umbrella, I mean."

"I didn't bother telling her and upsetting her with something she can't do anything about," Alice shook her head and stared down at her boots. "There's one more thing. I have a friend out there."

Chris frowned suspiciously. "A friend? A friend-friend or a friend that will make Claire jealous?"

"A friend-friend," the blonde answered, rolling her eyes at his attitude. "Last time I saw her, it was right here, after I…" Alice could not talk about Angie ever again. She swallowed hard and shook her head. "She's a good person, and she's on her own. I will try to track her and send her after you. So don't fret in case Jill shows up out of nowhere-"

"Jill?"

"Yes, my friend Jill Valentine."

Chris felt his jaw drop. "She's alive?" he muttered.

"She survived Raccoon City," Alice shrugged. "I think there's not much that could defeat her these days. You know her?"

"Friend from military training," he said, dismissing the subject as quickly as possible. But Alice seemed to have caught the blush on his face.

"Small world," she said with a smirk that didn't go unnoticed by him.

"So, you're tracking her and returning?" he asked, avoiding her smug expression.

"I'll send Jill first, and then… once I'm finished… if I'm still alive, that is…"

"Claire is gonna kill me for backing you up. This is crazy, Alice. You should stay with us. Be safe."

"I don't need that."

"But for some reason I don't get, my sister needs you."

Alice looked up to find him smirking at her. "About this whole needing shit… What about that boy? Mickey?"

Chris laughed. "Mikey? I didn't even see him at dinner. I think he was somewhere out there, shitting his pants."

"So he didn't-"

"Never got near my sister again," Chris assured the blonde with a friendly shake of his head.

Alice gave him a short nod and stood up. After a soft tap on his shoulder, she spun on the heels of her boots. "Well… Night, Chris."

"Night."

Alice just had to walk a small distance to get to the Hummer. Claire and K-Mart were inside fast asleep, the teen on the passenger seat and the redhead on the back. Once Alice pulled the door open, Claire opened her eyes and gave her a small, sleepy smile that made the blonde's heart jolt. She would give the world to wake up to that face every morning, but there was not even a world to bargain anymore, and the little that was left was hers to save.

"Come here," Claire whispered, beckoning her in. Alice climbed softly into the vehicle, trying not to jerk it too much so she wouldn't disturb K-Mart. She closed the door and pulled Claire to her. It was the first time she fell asleep that fast, letting go without putting up a fight against exhaustion.

She woke up in the middle of the night, though, missing the leader's warmth against her chest. She found Claire projected herself to the front of the car, leaning forwards as she whispered reassuring words to K-Mart, who probably had a nightmare. Alice sat up straight and called the teen.

"Hey… It's okay. Come over, kid," she said softly, patting the space on her other side. She tried to ignore the look of love she was receiving from Claire, but she needed those two like she never needed anyone else in her entire life. She pulled her arms around their shoulders and held them, her girls, wishing one day – one goddamn day – she would be able to stay with them forever. Like a family.

**XXX**

The following day was an absolute nightmare to everyone, but no one was in a foul mood like Alice when the night came. Every route, every scheme, anything she helped to plan was something she wouldn't be a part of, and she hated to imagine Claire on her own, again, having that stupid boy to offer a friendly shoulder when she felt bad because of Alice.

She could not help it, though; it was the first time she found something like that, and instead of grasping it with all her might, she had to let it go. She had to vanquish Umbrella from Earth to make sure it was safe again, and then she'd seek Claire, and she would take and accept everything the redhead wanted from her.

From her distance, she watched Claire embodying the leader once again. She gave precise orders, firm and encouraging words to the convoy, trying to be as positive as she could so people would gather energy for the long trip they had ahead. Chris had his arms folded and looked pleased at his sister, but he caught Alice's expression of misery.

"It's not too late, you know," he said as he approached her. "You can pack your bags and put them on the back of that Hummer and leave with us. Claire doesn't even have to know you were planning to leave."

"I haven't changed my mind," she said in a raspy tone, following Mikey with her feral eyes. He was merely listening to Claire's instructions like everyone else, but she felt jealousy crawling its way up her skin like poison. The blond guy didn't miss that; when Mikey noticed the way she was looking at him – like she could make his heart fail with her thoughts – he took a few steps back, folded his arms and positioned himself behind other convoy members.

"You do have a power over him," Chris commented after the group started to dissipate to collect supplies and their belongings. The trip was scheduled for the first hours in the next morning. "We could really use your company to keep him quiet. Funny thing is that he used to be a nice guy until my sister and him-" Chris cut it off once he caught the murderous look on the blonde's face. "My bad."

"As much as I'd love to stay and kill him… Duty calls," Alice hissed, throwing one last disgusted look at the blond guy before she turned to Chris. "I guess this is goodbye, then."

"Till we meet again," he shook her hand, not sure if they should hug. Not only it was extremely ill-advised, because it could get too much attention, but also it was too awkward. "Are you sure-?"

"I can't look into her eyes this time," she said in a hoarse whisper. "It'll be easier for her if she's angry rather than disappointed."

Chris only nodded and left Alice alone, deep in thought and hating herself for what she was about to do. She heard a snort behind her back, and she sighed deeply when she found Mikey standing there.

"Bravo," he said, his tone dangerously low so only Alice would hear him. "That's your stand, then? You change the lives of a whole convoy, throw them to what could be a trap and turn your back on them?"

"Do not talk about what you don't know, boy," Alice snarled, rounding on him. He emanated fear and defiance in equal levels, and she wanted to kill him so that she wouldn't have to smell neither. "Stay out of my way, now."

As she tried to move past him, he held out his hand and kept her from walking. At this point the whole convoy had stopped to watch; Chris was closer, and he kept his eyes on Alice, begging her not to do anything stupid. There were children there, after all.

"How old are you, Mickey?" Alice hissed. "Don't you think it's too soon to die?"

"I'm not afraid of dying," he spat back. "I'm afraid for everyone in this convoy! You might kill me, I'm only one! But you don't care if your Utopia ends up by killing _all_ of them! The least you could do was to join us, don't you think?"

"What is he talking about?"

Alice felt her heart drop to her stomach when she heard Claire's voice, but it went back to the usual fast pace when Mikey grinned humorlessly at her. "Right. You didn't tell her that."

"Don't do it," she growled at him.

"Tell me what, Alice?"

"Tell her!" Mikey shouted. "What, are you afraid of her?"

Alice could see everyone with the corner of her eyes - Chase, K-Mart, Chris and every other member of the convoy that had trusted her. Claire the closest, only one step away from her, and yet she could not face the leader.

"I'm warning you," Alice hissed, watching Mikey's every move like a predator follows its prey. "Do not be stupid."

"Tell me what?" Claire snarled, appealing to Mikey this time.

"Don't you see?" he stared at the leader. "You really thought she'd follow you like a pet dog, Claire? Seriously? God, _that_ is stupid…"

"Don't make me want to punch you, Mikey," Claire warned.

"Go ahead and do it! But maybe you wanna wait to watch your girlfriend's grand finale in this convoy! I overhead her and your brother… She's leaving you again!" he said loudly, looking at her astonished expression with pleasure. "Yeah… Super woman planned to sneak out in the middle of the night!"

Alice pressed her lips together and felt a growl escaping through her teeth, like a waking beast. She lifted one ankle to prop her feet and push her body forward against Mikey, not even caring if the impact killed him. But then the redhead got in her visual field, and she had to push all the fury back or she'd hurt Claire.

Her blue eyes were drenched with anger and disbelief. Alice knew Claire was afraid to ask, but she knew the leader wanted to believe Mikey was just being an asshole. Her hands were shaking and her beautiful face was distorted by the light of the flames.

After a few minutes in silence, Chris approached his sister and tried to have her sitting down somewhere. She shoved him away without taking her eyes off of Alice.

"I don't wanna… hear you right now," she hissed at him. Her voice was shaky and she seemed completely out of her mind. Chris sighed and spared one last glance at Alice. As she didn't move, he simply started to gather the convoy members and have them going away from the eye of the storm, making sure K-Mart walked too. She seemed disappointed but she followed the others without saying anything.

"Is it true?" Claire hissed at Alice. The blonde did not answer and kept her eyes lowered to the dusty ground. "I want to know if this is true!" the redhead repeated louder.

Chris tried to come closer again. "Claire-"

"And you knew it?" she spat at him, again preventing him from holding her arm. "You knew she was going to leave?"

He gulped and nodded, holding his sister's gaze. "Go away, Chris," Claire whispered. "I'm serious."

Chris let out a deep breath and shrugged. He knew he would never hear the end of it, but he actually felt more sorry for Alice than himself.

"You know what?" Claire turned back to the blonde. "Maybe you should leave right now. If the plan was to walk out on me, why don't you just go ahead? Yeah, let's make it easier, Alice. Just… go."

Alice felt her feet trying to drag her towards the redhead. Her blue eyes glimmered with angry tears that would never fall, but Alice hated that she was causing them. She wanted to apologize, but if she said anything, she would never be able to turn her back on Claire and leave.

Claire watched the blonde standing there, motionless, frozen. It was like she was devoid of all the emotions that once she saw in her eyes. Her green irises were finally on her, but only to judge her words and scrutinize her body language. The fire made her tanned skin look like silk, and her hair seemed to be gold, like something inhuman but magnificent.

"I don't want you to _ever_ set feet in this convoy again, Alice," Claire whispered, her lips trembling and her voice failing her. "Don't you dare coming back. It's too damn hard. If you plan on gallivanting the world, fine, but don't come back. Don't do it, because… _Shit_," she covered her face with her hands, and Alice felt her heart shatter into a million pieces as she stood there, just watching. The leader lowered her hands and stared at her. "Because I love you," Claire whispered. "And I mean it _exactly _like that."

The leader turned around and left Alice rooted on her spot. Alice swallowed hard, the lump in her throat becoming the smallest of her many concerns. She had never felt so much pain constrict her chest like that, but just the same she walked away to collect her stuff and so dishonestly abandon the only person that mattered to her.

**XXX**

Claire tried to adjust her body on the Hummer's seat for the millionth time, but to no avail. It didn't make her feel more comfortable or even slightly less angry. It took her hours to finally convince K-Mart to go to sleep and to get rid of her brother and Chase. The convoy was silently spread around the camp, sleeping too, just waiting for curfew and her word.

She stared out of the grated window. It was a very dark night in many ways, and she could not believe she would never see Alice again. But she had to move on. The convoy needed her now more than ever, and she was going to make sure they got to Alaska. Claire knew it would be hell to start over in a place that would be forever linked to Alice's apparition in her life, but she would do her best.

There was no goodbye this time. No goodbye kiss, no goodbye hug, no promises. She opened her heart to Alice and all she did was to step on it with her dirty boots. Claire lit up a cigarette and got out of the car to smoke and think over the plans they had made. She sat down by the hood and dragged it slowly.

Claire closed her eyes but jumped when the vehicle's radio cringed. She ran to detach it from the dashboard before the noise woke K. It had been hard work to calm her down and finally have her sleeping. She knew the girl would probably not just want but demand an explanation about Alice, but Claire was not ready to give it that night. With the device in hand, she moved as far from the car as she could. A voice came out of it.

"_Claire._"

It sent chills down her spine and it made her heart jerk inside her chest.

"_I know you are not sleeping, and I know you can hear me,"_ Alice sighed loudly, her breathing making the device sizzle. "_I'm down by the road._"

"Because you're so in love with yourself that you can't even concentrate and start the Jeep?" she snarled with indifference.

There was a long pause and then another deep breath. "_Because I can't go_."

Claire was disposed to make Alice wait forever so that she would feel the same anguish she was feeling, but the blonde just had completely wrapped her around her fingers, and somehow the perspective of slapping Alice to death seemed extremely tempting.

She threw the radio inside the car, slung her rifle onto her shoulder and picked a flashlight. The walk down the trail didn't take more than fifteen minutes, but she had no idea those minutes were going to change her life forever. Claire felt her heart beating in her throat, and she half expected Alice to sneak up on her and pin her to the ground with that fucking cute smirk plastered on her face.

It was very dark down the road, and there was a car in there, but it wasn't the Jeep. Then there was the click of a gun behind her, and the cold barrel touched the back of her head.

"Move and you won't live to see the sun rise this morning, princess."

She knew that voice, and anger started to boil in her stomach once she understood what a fool she was. There were footsteps against the gravel and soon Ocampo stood in front of her, a smirk that was not like Alice's at all and a look of pleasure that made Claire wince. She thought Alice had killed that bitch back in Nevada.

There were at least three other soldiers behind her, ready to shoot in case she did anything, and with the beams of light from their weapons she spotted a woman in red dress on the driver's seat of the black SVU.

Ocampo approached her slowly and pulled a small device to her lips. Her mouth moved, and Claire saw her speaking, but it was Alice's voice coming out of it.

"Love, Miss Redfield, is a very, _very_ stupid thing," the brunette said with a smile, taking Claire's gun and throwing it at the nearest man. She drew closer and reached out to take the leader's hat. Ocampo threw it at the bottom of the trail – the exact spot the convoy would pass by in a few hours. "Get in the car," she hissed in Claire's ear.

"What's your first name?" the redhead asked her. It provoked laughter in the group, and the woman inside the van actually snarled for them to hurry up. She didn't look happy to be there.

"My first name-" the brunette roughly guided her to the cargo area of the vehicle "-is Rain."

"Well," Claire smirked at her as she was unceremoniously thrown against the hard floor. "_Fuck you_, Rain."

The soldier chuckled and shook her head. "Let's see about that. And enjoy your trip. I hope it's very uncomfortable." And with that, she slammed the door shut. Claire was swallowed by darkness and soon her senses were engulfed by some substance they forced her to inhale, and all that was left was the fading memory of blond hair and green eyes.

_Alice…_


	10. Promise

**Blue jeans ****  
****White shirt****  
****Walked into the room****  
****You know you made my eyes burn****  
****It was like, James Dean, for sure****  
****You're so fresh to death and sick as cancer****  
****You're were sorta punk rock, I grew up on hip hop****  
****But you fit me better than my favorite sweater,****  
****And I know****  
****That love is mean, and love hurts **

**But I still remember that day****  
****we met in December, oh, baby!**

**I will love you until the end of time****  
****I would wait a million of years****  
****Promise you'll remember that you're mine****  
****Baby can you see through the tears?****  
****Love you more, than those bitches before****  
****Say you'll remember****  
****Oh baby, say you'll remember****  
****I will love you until the end of time**

**10. Promise**

The sun rose in the horizon, bathing the Earth's surface with its usual orange glow. It was beautiful. Nothing extraordinary or new there, but it had been years that Alice didn't pay attention to it. She sighed and closed her eyes, feeling the moisture of tears behind her eyelids.

The morning colors reminded her of Claire – reddish and blue, her perfect combination, her best friend in the darkest hours, her happy place in such horrible wasteland. She wondered whether the convoy had already departed to Arcadia. Alice had secretly wished the Jeep would not work, and she promised herself she would take that as a sign and never consider leaving Claire's side again if it failed.

However, to her absolute dismay, the car started, even after all the problems it went through during her trip to Raccoon City. As the engines roared to life, Alice thought her fate was sealed; now she thought she was an idiot.

She could have jumped out of the car and ran back up that hill. She could be with the convoy on their way to Alaska. But no – duty always came first. That made her realize why she was so lonely and bitter in the first place. Before the apocalypse, she was that person too.

It had been a surprise to everyone when she volunteered to be the test subject in order to save others, but then her real reasons were yet obscure to her. It wasn't a matter of not caring about people; Alice simply existed, and she didn't care about herself, either. Maybe that gesture had been an attempt of redemption that just ended up in a bad way.

Nevada wasn't really far, and Alice was once again moving by instinct, following the tingling sensation that the desert facility would clear things for her – the beginning and possibly the end of everything. She was alone again, and she could just move non-stop until she got there, safe and sound, considering the fact that nature seemed unable to defeat her.

And there she was, all alone on the road. No one to tell her what to do, no one to watch over, no one to be jealous of… _Shit_. Alice had really not missed that life.

She had been wandering the country for years, without memory, living for the day, and then she had met Claire. It was difficult to go back to that after everything that had happened with the redhead.

"I love you," Alice repeated to herself. "I love you." _Why is that so fucking hard to say?_ "Shit…" She shook her head in disbelief, actually surprised with her inability to be spontaneous. "I love you…"

Claire's voice echoed vividly in her mind. Her care, her gestures, even the way her breathing and heart speed up whenever Alice came closer… It all made sense now. Alice could still turn around and track the convoy. She was only a few hours away from them, and she could even give up on the Jeep and walk if she wanted.

But then the look of pain on Claire's face curbed her; she was sure the leader would not welcome her back after all that she had done. Alice didn't manage rejection well in the past, and this was another feature the t-virus had not changed in her. In Claire's shoes, she would have done the same. Jill had left her for the same reason, and even Rain had to pay a heavy price because of her.

Kaplan and J.D were dead. Angie was dead. She had killed them all. Maybe it was a good thing she had left Claire. This way, she might have a few more years, and the natural conditions of a ruining planet would beat her instead of Alice's mortal company.

"You shouldn't love me," Alice whispered, feeling the lump in her throat burn as she swallowed the urge to release her own pain.

**XXX**

Chris rubbed the sleep off of his eyes and blinked several times until he could properly see the faint outlines of the Arklay Mountains. The sun was not completely up in the horizon yet, but the chills of the night were gone, and he knew they would face another hot day.

They were better enjoy it while they still could, after all they were heading to Alaska in about one hour. He had sort of expected to hear Claire's raspy knocks on the truck's door, but as nothing happened he decided to prod Chase and jump out of the vehicle to start prepping things for their departure.

The cowboy moved slowly towards the mansion to wake up everyone else that was on the sleeping bags as he marched to the yellow Hummer. Chris frowned when he found K-Mart alone and wide awake.

"Morning, kid," he waved, peering briefly at the front seat. He didn't see his sister's gun, which indicated she was already up. The reason was no mystery to him; it was even possible that she had not slept at all.

"Where's Claire?" K-Mart asked in a sleepy voice, her hair all messed up. "Are we late?"

"No, we're on time," he told her. "I think she's walking around camp. C'mon," Chris offered a comfortable smile to the girl. "Last breakfast in Raccoon City."

K-Mart grunted something he didn't get, and the older Redfield decided to leave her alone to stretch and rant some about her hair. He really didn't know what a teenager's routine in the morning was. Claire usually woke up first and headed outside the house without breakfast to help their father with the cars.

The late Redfield owned a small repair shop just across the street in their hometown, and it was very common to run into a young Claire walking about the place until night, covered in filthy while her friends were all dressed up to club or something.

He met up with Chase and noticed people leaving the house with their few belongings, yawning and greeting the others. He saw Mikey come out last, and the urge to punch him had to be restrained for the time being. He wasn't in the mood to upset Claire some more by reviving last night's events.

Chris had to admit he was slightly afraid that she would kick his ass when they met; even though he never admitted it to her face, Chris knew Claire was damn strong. However, what worried him most was to find her disappointed at him for being Alice's accomplice after all his sermons about how they should not move along the blonde's lines and promises.

He went down the incline to the lake, half expecting her to be smoking by the wet rocks or pacing furiously out of the convoy's eyes. Chris sighed when he reached the lake edge and didn't find her there.

"Claire?" he called out. There was no sound other than the water running and the echo of his voice. "Claire, we have to leave!"

"Hey Chris?"

He looked up. It was Rick.

"What?"

"You wanna come up here and see what Ernest found."

Chris felt his shoulders tense. When people told you to sit down or suggest you see something with your own eyes, it usually meant you would not like it a bit. And he was goddamn right when he saw the man holding his sister's cap. Ernest was fumbling with it in his hands, looking slightly disheveled when Chris approached him. The older Redfield took the item from him and stared down at the dust covered green fabric.

"Where did you find this?" he asked quietly.

Ernest hesitated for a moment. "Down by the road. Along with this," he removed a flash lamp from his jeans pocket. "I saw footprints, so I just followed."

"How do you know they weren't Alice's? She left last night," Chris said, completely aware that he was trying to make excuses to avoid the complications of that situation.

"Her pack of cigarettes was on the ground too," Ernest muttered. The rest of the convoy had approached them now, clearly noticing their leader was missing. "And down there… There are more than two sets of footprints. You can count three or four more. And also-"

"What?" Chris urged. He felt K-Mart next to him.

"There are too many tire marks for one Jeep," Ernest breathed. "And they went to opposite directions."

Nothing of that made the slightest sense to Chris. All the vehicles that belonged to the convoy were there, and no one heard anything during the night. Something was missing, and it was impossible to connect the dots. Chris did not like any of the ideas his brain was formulating.

"Claire would not have left us," he said categorically. He didn't like how the suspicious expressions were slowly appearing among the convoy members' faces. "My sister would never do that to this convoy! We're family and Claire has always cherished that above anything else!"

"Hey, no one's saying otherwise," Chase patted his shoulder carefully. "We all know Claire, buddy."

"If she didn't leave us, then what happened?" Lucinda asked folding her arms.

Chris sensed K-Mart flexing her muscles. He looked down at the girl and could have sworn she was growling at the brunette.

"Isn't it obvious?"

Everyone turned their gazes to Mikey.

"What's obvious?" Rick spat at him.

"We all saw what that woman is capable of," he said arrogantly. "Is it possible that I'm the only one here who's not completely in love with her magic tricks?"

"Well, you're biased to hate her because she totally took your place, Mikey," said Janet, a young woman they had rescued back in Arizona a few years ago.

No one had ever spoken so openly about Claire's relationship with Alice until now, and some people were hypocrite enough to look surprised with that statement. When general murmur and parallel conversation started, Chase called everyone's attention.

"Not the point and not our business, people," the cowboy said. "This is a democracy, and we're going to do this the way Claire would. Is there anyone here, apart from Mikey, who believes Alice would have persuaded Claire to leave?"

"What if she abducted Claire?" Mikey interrupted again.

Chase rolled his eyes. "Or believes she would've taken her against her will?" He added.

The convoy members exchanged looks for a while, but no one expressed concern regarding Alice's character. It was a stupid assumption and everyone seemed to realize it; even if the footprints meant a fight between them, the tire marks ruined that theory.

While they debated about it, Chris allowed his mind to go back to the conversation he had with Alice two nights previously. She had opened up to him about her suspicions that someone was messing with her.

"Claire was not supposed to know Alice was leaving," Chris finally spoke. "No one was supposed to know it," he threw a murderous glance at Mikey. "Why would she plan to go without my sister's knowledge if her objective was to kidnap her or even convince her to leave as well?"

"Remember when those things attacked us when we were searching for supplies?" Rick pointed out. "Claire said she had a feeling Umbrella was behind it. She said she thought they had set us up."

"Alice thought she was being tracked, too," Chris added. "That was the reason she was leaving. She didn't want to risk our safety, and she wouldn't return again until she found out what was happening."

"Then what do we do now?" Janet asked.

"We have to find Claire," K-Mart spoke for the first time, her voice ringing like a warning to everyone.

"How the fuck we're finding her if Umbrella's behind it?" Lucinda argued.

"First, we don't know if it's Umbrella that's got her," the teen spat back. "Second, we have Alice."

"Which part of 'Alice left' you didn't get, K-Mart?" the brunette retorted.

"Which part of 'Alice is not dumb' _you_ didn't get, Lucinda?" she snarled. "She has a radio. We're calling her back and having her help us find Claire. Too difficult or do I have to draw it for you?"

Chris felt a sudden rush of affection for K-Mart that he almost hugged her, but instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Are we agreed that, for now, Chris is in charge? And that we're staying here until we reach Alice?" Chase asked to the group. There was general nodding and he looked satisfied. The cowboy removed his hat. "Go quilt your guts with some food. We'll think about something."

"Thank you," Chris muttered to him as most of the people moved to work the fire again and set the food they had separated from the supplies stocked for the trip.

"Not a problem, Redfield," Chase pressed his lips into a faint smile and left.

Chris turned to K-Mart, and he was surprised to see that the fire she had in her eyes a minute ago was gone. She looked positively petrified.

He took a deep breath. "I promise you we're going to-"

"I'm tired of people promising things to me and never sticking to it," K-Mart cut him harshly. "My parents, Alice… Don't make me add you to the list. I'm _so_ sick of you people…"

Chris tried to hold her back when she started to walk away, but she shoved his hand off her shoulder pretty much the same way Claire did.

"Leave me alone!" she hissed in a strangled voice. Chris let her go and noticed she took solace inside the Hummer. Deciding to respect her and give her space, he asked Janet to save some breakfast for the teen. He knew sooner or later she would come seeking food.

**XXX**

K-Mart slammed the door of the car angrily. It took her a while to notice she had sat down on the manual radio. She was so mad that she didn't even think it was weird the device was detached from the dashboard. Closing her eyes, the blonde tried to remember any noises from last night, any evidence that Claire had really left the car on her own accord.

She was so pissed at Alice that, if Claire had followed her, she was ten times more pissed at the redhead. Why people kept abandoning her like that? Yeah, she was sounding like an immature, ungrateful brat, but well surprise, she was a teenager, and she was tired of acting like a grown up.

K-Mart wanted to drink and get wasted like her friends did when they were mad at their parents. She wanted to throw her iphone at her body-length mirror, and she wanted to be grounded for that, even if by now she was too old for that. What K-Mart didn't want was to sit alone inside the Hummer, thinking Claire would die in Umbrella's hands.

Then she remembered there was a way to be sure whether Claire had left or been forced to leave. She projected her body to the back of the car and frantically patted her hand under the seats. K-Mart closed her fingers around the duffel bag when they made contact with the fabric.

Her heart dropped to her stomach; that bag seemed to mean a lot to the redhead, and the fact that it stood there was not a good sign. She pulled the cords apart and split the opening, expecting to find the weird items at the bottom, but instead she saw the red notebook and a camera recorder.

Frowning, she collected the electronic device and pressed the power button. Alice's face appeared on the small screen with a bleeding nose. The image was slightly bluish, but K-Mart could recognize that it had been recorded in Kansas.

"_Day one_," the blonde said. "_My name is Alice, and this is what is left of the world after the virus outbreak. I worked in the U.S Army, and apparently I was part of a resistance group that wanted to take Umbrella down. I have no idea what happened to the rest of them, except for Rain_."

She made a pause and sighed deeply, looking slightly bothered with something.

"_She's working for Umbrella, in the Nevada facility, located in the desert. I think I killed her_."

K-Mart quickly understood Alice was talking about the soldier who had almost captured them. The Alice in the video searched for something on the passenger seat. When she retrieved her arm, she had a cigarette in her hand; Alice lit it and stared long back at K-Mart.

"_I still have to figure out… many things, staring with how we knew Umbrella was doing illegal research. Next, how come they caught us. And finally… Why I was the only one they didn't kill or enslaved_." She looked sideways. "_I'm headed to New York now. There's a facility there, and I'm going to scavenge it, and then destroy it_." Alice stared out of the window one last time and then returned to the camera with a whisper. "_Signing off_."

K-Mart was completely taken aback with what she had found out. She was about to leave the Hummer and show it to Chris when another entry started to play after a few seconds of static.

"_Day two_," Alice closed her eyes for a moment and let out a loud breath. "_I fucking hate journals._"

The screen went blank. K-Mart shook her head. She could not have expected anything different from Alice.

**XXX**

"Are you sure?" Jill asked, one hand on her hip and the other shading her eyes from the sun. "It looks abandoned."

"That's the idea," Carlos said, stopping next to her as they both contemplated the rusty fence of a gigantic military camp. It looked like it was left to rot just as most places in the country. "Everything runs underground, and it shouldn't be different here."

The main entrance pavement was all cracked and several blocks of asphalt stood up in weird angles. Jill squinted suspiciously.

"There's a lot of tire marks on the sand by the end of the road," she pointed her thumb over her shoulder "Do you think they had to leave in a hurry?"

"It's possible," Carlos agreed, also gazing intently at the vestiges of what looked like a minor earthquake.

"I really don't wanna waste ammo on stupid undead to find a facility someone already nuked. NY was bad enough," she said, still glaring at the shattered ground. That looked slightly familiar. She shook her head. It couldn't be-

Carlos looked down at Jill. He had half expected her to kick him out of her car a few weeks back, but it turned out she accepted his company without actually telling him that. She was centered and he liked that about her; they had wasted a lot of gas and time going to New York, only to find out the facility in Manhattan had already been taken care of.

It had looked like recent work to him, but neither Carlos nor Jill liked to talk about that. That was the one and only similarity between them, and probably it was what had kept them together for so long – they never looked back or overanalyzed anything.

"What the fuck are you doing?" she asked when he pushed his body up the fence and started to climb the wired steps.

"Only one way to find out if it's taken care of," he tilted his head towards the hangars as he struggled to hold his weight still so Jill could finish her rant before he got to the other side. She snorted – a clear sign that she was not going to talk more – so Carlos just jumped.

"Fuck me," she grunted, hooking her boots in the gaps and hoisting her body up. Jill dismissed Carlos's hand when she got at the top of the fence. "Are you serious? I've been to more boot camps than I can count – hold this for me," she threw her pack of cigarettes at him.

Carlos rolled his eyes and grinned. "Why would you need smokes now? We're working, Valentine!" he said playfully.

"Yeah," she puffed as she landed on the hard ground. "Just in case there's nothing better to entertain me in there. Shooting undead is getting really old."

The man merely shook his head, leading the way through a long corridor of dust. There were hangars on both sides and nothing inside any of them. Both had their guns at ready, but the 'alert cop' entrance they were pulling seemed really unnecessary – dust and useless carcass of cars were not a threat to anyone.

"Should we split?" Jill asked him, watching their surroundings carefully.

"Meet you by the end of the row," was his quiet answer.

The brunette took the right side, entering a small corridor between two hangars. Jill moved stealthily, still grasping her gun firmly. These past months her life had been resumed to that drill – hit the road, hit the ground, lock and load, and run back to the car.

It could be exhaustively boring sometimes, and it was good to have Carlos with her. Usually he kept her entertained with his annoying jokes, but she knew he wanted time to pass faster too, and that was his way to help her.

Some nights she still woke up with the echo of a shotgun. Jill could remember Alice's trembling hand, the smoke coming out of the barrel, and Angie on the couch. She had thought that, after watching her hometown fly into pieces, nothing would shock her much, and well, wasn't she wrong. Jill liked Carlos, but she definitively missed Angie. She was so clever and embarrassingly more mature than many adults.

Jill was not surprised that she missed Alice too, even though the way they separated could have said otherwise. The silent exchanges, the sense of constant safety around the most instable person on Earth, and even her rude manners had kept her mind in check.

That day Jill had lost them both, and even though Carlos could speak for two, it was not the same anymore, except for that pointless excursion over the country. The only change was that she was starting to have fun with the explosives Umbrella left in their facilities - 'to sanitize', if it came to that.

The back of the hangars was empty like the front corridor, and after a few yards she met the end of the perimeter. There was only dust there, remnants of campfire and dry vegetation. Carlos was a short distance away, watching the lengthy fence that surrounded the area.

She approached him slowly, and noticed he had a preoccupied air as he stared at a far house in the middle of the desert, outside the camp.

"What's wrong?"

Carlos looked at her. "It's in there."

Jill followed his gaze across the sandy landscape. "You're kidding me."

The house – or at least it looked like a house from that far – stood a few miles across the desert from that point. It was difficult to tell once the sun usually played tricks with their eyes in the sand with zero reference marks.

"It's your call," Carlos said, sticking his gun back to his belt. "I just think that, as we came all this way to get here-"

"I think you're right."

He looked at Jill. "You think I'm right?" There was a hint of sarcasm on his voice that the brunette didn't miss.

"Don't get too used to that," she said tersely but with a smirk on her lips. "So, up to the fence, again."

"I have a better idea," now Carlos's grin was slightly wild, and that made Jill frown.

"Oh, God…"

"Wait here," he said, ignoring her. Carlos turned around and sprinted back to the entrance gate's direction.

She rolled her eyes and decided to give him a chance. A few minutes later Jill heard the car engine as it drew near. Carlos hit the brakes of the vehicle and honked lightly for her to climb. The brunette actually chuckled as she walked towards the car and entered.

"Fasten your seat belt, baby," he said, pressing the gas pedal a few times.

"It's just a rusty fence, Olivera, not the China Great Wall."

"Jesus, you're no fun, Valentine," he smiled despite himself, and accelerated. The car quickly ate up the distance to the grates and easily crashed the ruined metal barrier. A huge cloud of sand lift off and surrounded them, entering through the rolled down windows and blurring the sight.

"Fuck!" Carlos heard Jill's muffled voice. "Slow down this shit, Carlos!"

He turned off the ignition and sighed. It took several minutes until the dust settled back down. He turned carefully to Jill. "I think we're against the wind."

"You _think_?" she hissed, folding her arms. "You're such an optimistic…"

"If you knew it beforehand, weather girl, you could have said something," he spat back.

Carlos was never grumpy, and it surprised Jill a little when she caught the tone of real annoyance on his voice. "All right, I didn't mean to sound like a bitch. Sorry."

He grunted in acknowledge and shrugged.

"Here, have a smoke," Jill rolled down her window as she handed a cigarette to him.

He accepted it in silence and lit it with a match. Jill kept throwing glances at him, but Carlos didn't look like he was going back to his talkative mode so soon. "Okay, how far you think we are from the house?"

Carlos threw the cigarette butt out of the window and studied the patch ahead of them. "I can't precise it. About a mile or two. But I'm an goddamned optimistic, it might be ten or fifteen."

"Cut some slack, Carlos! I already said I'm sorry!"

"What can I say, Jill? You hurt my feelings." She chuckled when she saw the grin back on his face. "So, why do you ask about the distance?"

"Roll up this window and hit the gas pedal. Keep an eye on the odometer," Jill said with a smug smile.

"Oh, I like that," Carlos laughed. "You ready?"

"To agree with your shitty plans? Always," she nodded in agreement.

**XXX**

She squinted when she spotted the growing dust ball in the middle of the desert. It seemed to approach her location at considerable speed, and it only took her a few seconds to realize there was a car underneath all the sand.

Alice somehow knew she was going to find out who was the sick bastard that was trying to fuck with her mind. She had the Jeep very well concealed – it had exploded once she got out of it, and now all that was left of the car were large chunks of metal that were still on fire.

Apparently, seeing the camp and reviving everything she had with Claire there was too much for her unstable brain. Never her psionic blast had been so responsive and fast. Maybe she could choose particular memories to control its intensity, but now she didn't have time to test that theory. She had business to attend to.

The adrenaline ran in her veins and pumped her heart faster than the t-virus did, giving her the dangerous sense of being the immortal at bay, waiting her moment to start a vicious hunting game until she decided to spare her prey and finally end it.

Alice hadn't felt that way the past few months, and she knew it was mostly due to Claire's presence. The redhead somehow forced her to focus on simple matters instead of attacking any living thing – except for Mikey, but he had asked for that.

The blonde sneaked back to the house after kicking sand to put out the faint sparks popping from the destroyed Jeep. She had been there for about an hour, and following the tingle in her blood, Alice approached a worn out wooden table that stood in the middle of the decaying room. The piece of furniture split in half and slid to different directions, forming the large entrance to a vertical tunnel. A few seconds later, a metal platform came up and stopped at ground level.

It had actually been the roaring outside that caught Alice's attention, but now that she knew what it was about, she stepped the elevator and descended. Slowly, the suffocating heat from the desert dissipated and her skin shivered with the soft blows of cold air.

The way down took about a minute, and when she finally faced the real facility, she understood why there were so many ducts of air conditioning and white lamps over the place. It was not inhabited, but a lot of equipment and computers were functioning over desks and lab counters, depending on electricity and the cold temperature.

She had no idea what happened there these days, but she knew it was the place K-Mart had escaped from after years being held hostage. There were several beds with cuffs, white sheet stained with blood and many signs of fight in there. The nearest monitor reported the amount of gas running in the ducts, and when she read the name of the substance – P15 – memories of her final days in the Army returned to her.

Along with the t-virus, the P15 was a nerve gas still in development, used to contain major riots and violent crowds or, in the case, people that tried to mess with Umbrella.

**XXX**

_Alice woke up from a deep sleep with the noise of an explosion and the trembling of her bed in the infirmary. _

"_Shit hit the fan! They know!" Rain hissed, throwing a rifle to her after unceremoniously shaking her by the shoulders. "They fucking know! We have to get out of here! Move, Abernathy!"_

_Alice took off the IV feds from her arms and sat up, closing the white lab coat around her naked chest. She was still slightly doped, but she followed her friend out of the hospital wing. She knew Rain would carry her if that was what it took, but she had to regain control of her legs if she wanted to avoid them both from being killed._

_The icy corridor was dark and empty, but Alice could hear firing and howls outside as well as flashes of light from the explosions. One quick look through the window allowed her to see Umbrella's insignia on helicopters, vans and on the back of many soldiers in black._

"_What happened to Kaplan and J.D?" the blonde whispered, still struggling to keep up the pace with Rain._

"_Worms' food," the brunette said._

_Alice rolled her eyes. "You're all heart, aren't you?"_

"_Says little Miss Sunshine," Rain snorted. "Get in the locker room. You need to change."_

_The blonde didn't take long to locate her uniform. In between blurs, her sight seemed a lot more accurate in the dark than it had ever been before. She felt a lump in her throat once she had the time to fully acknowledge her friends had been eliminated._

_She didn't even want to think what Rain was feeling. The brunette and J.D had grown up together, and despite the fact that she always gave Kaplan a hard time, she liked him a lot. Alice shook her head. She could not afford to waste a second on feelings now. Rain was still alive and she had to get her friend out of the base._

_When she exited the room, Rain was just about to call her out. "C'mon, Alice."_

"_Who sold us?"_

"_That stupid boy Kennedy," Rain checked both sides of the hall before crossing it. "He wanted to help us with the information he had, and your fucking boyfriend convinced Leon to share it with him! He said he was with us!"_

"_Spencer?"_

"_That ass tried to sell the t-virus, for fuck's sake! Umbrella caught him, of course, and he gave them our names. I swear to you, I'm so killing him if Umbrella didn't do it by now-"_

"_And just for the record, he's NOT my boyfriend!"_

"_I know," Rain snickered. Alice rolled her eyes again. "So, gorgeous… How you feeling with this shit in your system?"_

"_There's no difference, I guess," the blonde said, but cringed slightly when she felt a pang in her right temple. It escalated from a throb to the sensation of a hot needle piercing her skull. "Fuck-"_

_She fell on her knees and dropped her gun, covering her ears and yelling in pain. Alice felt Rain squatting next to her, urging her to get up, but her voice was just a faint echo that kept mixing with the loud booming outside. She felt her friend's hand on hers, trying to pull her up, but it was too late._

_Escorted by twenty Umbrella soldiers, Ada Wong marched towards them in her red dress. She looked calm, given the situation. Leon and Spencer were cuffed, both being held by two guards each. She heard Privet Kennedy speaking desperately to her, but she could not distinguish his words any better than she could Rain's._

_Then there was the gas. She saw Rain fall next to her, and for a moment she thought she had just imagined it, but the brunette had actually fired from the cold floor and taken about five men down._

_Suddenly everything seemed to slow down and fall silent. Alice felt the pain go away, and her tense muscles pulled her on her feet. Faintly the sounds and the movement came back. _

"_Fucking RUN, Alice!"_

_And Alice ran. She had to take the proof of Umbrella's vicious acts out of the line of fire. She ran to the parking lot, forbidding herself to look back and stare at her best friend for the last time. She was hit by bullets, but nothing seemed to hurt her anymore. Alice saw a grenade fly right past her shoulder. She ducked and threw her body under a Jeep, and then everything went black._

**XXX**

The wooden board floor creaked underneath Jill's boots. Her blue eyes ran the small area as she held up her gun, but there seemed to be no threat in there. Carlos was right next to her, doing the same, also certificating that the room was empty.

"Are you sure this is even a facility?" the brunette asked with one hand on her hip.

"Yeah," he paced around with a deep frown as he stared at his feet. "We always heard conversations about the facility in Nevada. It used to be like Siberia. No one wanted to be transferred here when they asked for back up, and usually the ones that came never went back."

"And why is that?"

"Rumor has it that this was like a torture chamber, and when they ran out of testing subjects, the Umbrella scientists started to use personnel too."

Jill chuckled. "God, your sense of humor is becoming morbid."

"Well, believe it or not, I'm not joking this time," Carlos said with a worried expression, watching their surroundings carefully. "And if I'm not wrong, there's a secret passage here that will lead us underground."

"You're serious, aren't you?" Jill asked in low voice, resting her hip on the table and folding her arms. "You really think- _Shit_!"

She felt Carlos's hand pulling her back as the old table actually moved and its surface parted ways, revealing a very dark tunnel. Jill watched stunned when, after a few seconds, a platform came up to their feet.

"_Fuck me_," she whispered.

"Are you okay?" he asked with a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah…" she looked up and met his courteous dark eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good," Carlos nodded. "Let's go, then."

They stepped the square platform and after a moment descending, the air around them began to chill. There was a low hum coming from below, and it was not until they actually got there that Jill understood what it was. Monitors and a lot of machinery were still functioning, just as if the employees had left for lunch and would return in a bit.

Jill felt goosebumps erupt in her arms and on the back of her neck as she glanced around the place, still firmly grabbing her gun. The bluish light and the cold air gave her the idea of a refrigerator in a bad horror movie. There was blood on the glass walls, and bloody footprints towards the end of the corridor.

"It looks intact," Carlos said with a grimace.

"I wish it had been taken care of," Jill hissed, hating the discomfort she felt. She didn't like to sound weak or scared, but that place just seemed _too_ much. The brunette wondered how many people had died down there, and the thought didn't help all that much. She was resolved to reduce that facility to ashes, but every second felt longer, and her urge to leave only seemed to grow.

Not to mention the weird sensation that someone was watching her.

"What is it?" Carlos asked frowning, stopping next to her. Jill didn't respond immediately as she kept staring over her shoulder.

"I think there's-"

Something went past swooshing in the other direction, and this time Carlos noticed it too. They spun on their heels with their guns at ready, but they saw nothing more than creepy shadows.

"Let's find the purge device and get the hell out of here," Carlos grunted, turning away from her. They walked through the corridor together, the man marching backwards to watch the rear as Jill took point.

She felt once again the chill going down her spine as she moved further. Ignoring it as much as she could, Jill focused on what they had to do. The explosives were usually set up at random places, concealed by a fire hose or behind the electric power switch panel.

They would need controls and access codes in normal days, but Jill had learnt to cheat past the security systems – to Carlos absolute exasperation – with a hair pin.

Everything was controlled by chips, so she didn't have to be a bomb expert or even touch the wires. All she needed was to get the password.

It had been easy to locate the explosives in Miami. The facility was a large plant under the sun and above the Earth's surface, and most of the rooms still had name signs by the doors, so it was not complicated to find them and nuke the complex. They even had gotten extra dynamites to stock in case of emergencies.

That seemed to be a case like that, except that the bombs were up there, inside the car. Jill stopped at the end of the corridor and felt Carlos thud softly against her back. She looked to the right and to the left, but both directions looked exactly the same thing to her, and she had no idea which way to turn.

"Don't think, Jill," Carlos assured her. "Follow your instincts."

"Well, we should run, then," she grunted, taking the right. He was right behind her, but not even that kept the shivers away. "Fuck, I need a cigarette."

"Move on, Valentine," he urged. "The sooner we finish the sooner we can-"

"RUN!" Jill yelled, turning around and pulling him along. Carlos had a second to glimpse a horde of about twenty or more undead coming after them before he started to run.

All they could care about was to find the elevator, and suddenly the laboratories looked larger and maze-like. They ran over desks and chairs, leaving behind turned furniture, paper, pens and clipboards on the floor.

Jill and Carlos had the unspoken agreement of never shooting until it was the last resource; the firing could attract more of them and from different directions, and surely they didn't want to be cornered by those things.

They wore uniforms like prisoners and seemed faster than the poor walking corpses that usually wandered the streets.

"Fuck it," Jill grunted, spinning around and pulling the trigger. Carlos quickly followed her, and easily they eliminated the first row from the group, but others sprouted from adjacent corridors and doors, and they knew there would not be ammo enough to kill them all.

"We have to get back to that elevator!" Carlos shouted over the shooting.

Jill merely nodded. For the first time, panic was the only emotion she could feel. Carlos and she would be slaughtered by those creatures. Instead of the milky irises, they had their eyes completely black and evil, and they had a sense of hunt that the normal undead didn't have. Their teeth looked sharper and they growled a lot less.

It had been an ambush, and Jill and Carlos were surrounded by a group of intelligent monsters that could be silent when they were not supposed to be heard. She was losing hope before she ran out of ammo, but when her pistol jerked empty, Jill knew it was the end.

Even if they made it to the elevator, many undead would be able to follow and climb onboard with them. She heard Carlos curse next to her as he threw his useless gun away; he ran one arm around her shoulders a second before she closed her eyes. But nothing happened. Not to them, anyway.

A furious howl came ripping through the air, and she recognized the noises of necks being snapped successively. Jill opened her eyes and saw the cold lamps flashing above their heads. There was a dark figure moving at inhuman speed, jumping over the tables and kicking walls to get impulse.

Little by little, all the lights faded except for the emergency ones, and it was even more magnificent to watch the fight with little illumination flickering. Jill had no idea how or when they did it, but they were both on the floor, resting against the wall and gasping for air. Carlos seemed enthralled with the show as well.

Jill chuckled nervously when she caught a flash of blond hair. She was just about to let relief fall over her, when a strong hand caught her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her up from the ground. Choleric green eyes stared back at her and her face was greeted by puffing, hot breaths.

With the corner of her eye, Jill saw Carlos stand up and attack the blonde, but the woman was a lot faster and sent him crashing against metal drawers. The brunette swallowed as much as she could with the fingers in her throat, and she noticed the red hue fade from those beautiful green orbs.

The blonde's breathing was going back to normal speed, but she had not released Jill yet. She frowned and really stared back at Jill, finally recognizing her, just as if she had come back from a trance.

The brunette felt the immediate relief when the taller woman unclasped her shirt, looking scared at what she had done.

"Alice," Jill whispered, massaging her throat. "It's okay. It's okay, it's me."

Alice pressed her lips, looking extremely angry with herself, and to the brunette's utter disbelief, she took one step forward and hugged her. At first Jill thought Alice was trying to strangulate her again, but then she noticed her lanky arms around her waist and the complete lack of restraints as she left no space between them.

Jill patted her shoulders lightly, reciprocating the gesture, and chuckled somewhere near Alice's jaw line. "Glad to have you back, Wonder Woman," she whispered, not noticing that Carlos was standing up and approached the pair with a confused look on his face.

"Glad to have _you_ back," Alice said in a raspy voice.

"So you two know each other," Carlos said, rubbing the bump he got in the back of his head. Alice and Jill stared back at him. "Damn!" he grunted with a grin. "It's you! The outsider woman! Do you remember me?"

"Yeah, I… remember you," Alice nodded, pretending she didn't notice the way Jill was looking at her. "I'm sorry for-" she pointed the corner she had thrown him at.

"Don't worry," he waved a hand and turned to Jill. "We met years back, on the road, when Matt was still alive."

The brunette was no longer paying attention to him; her eyes were on the many corpses that stood around them and then back at Alice. "What happened to you?"

"I could ask you the same," the blonde said with a smirk Jill finally recognized.

"I'm into explosives now," she answered with a smirk of her own.

"Was it you who destroyed the facility in Miami?"

"The two of us," Carlos corrected her, but as neither of them seemed to register that, he just slumped down at the nearest desk. "Fine. I'll be sitting here while you two talk and ignore me."

"You've got a possessive boyfriend," Alice teased her with a frown. Jill snorted and rolled her eyes. "But anyway, we have to get out of here. There are a lot more where those came from, and I see you're out of bullets. You have to come with me, Jill. I've ran into this group of survivors and they're heading to Arcadia."

"So it really exists?"

"We don't know but… they took a chance."

"And why did you stay behind?"

Alice looked down at her boots, feeling the pain in her chest hit her once again. "I wanted to finish Umbrella and try to find you along the way."

Jill smiled, not exactly sure of how and why Alice sounded so different when she didn't seem to have changed in the slightest. The blonde still was rude and brute, but now it really looked like she allowed people more easily around her.

"So… You said there's a group-"

"I left them about a week and a half ago," Alice lowered her eyes. "And it finally feels like I can go back to…" she smiled briefly as thoughts of Claire flooded her mind. "If it's you nuking facilities, I guess I have nothing to worry about anymore. Besides, there's someone in the convoy that you-"

"_Alice_."

The three of them spun around, the blonde pointing her gun at the direction the voice came from. It was just a monitor – one of the last that remained functioning after she made the energy crash. There was a Chinese woman on the screen, and Alice recognized her immediately.

"I'm going to kill you," she hissed, approaching the device as anger boiled inside of her.

"_I think you may want to hear me first. You have to know that the Umbrella satellites have been following you for years and before you try, there's nowhere to hide."_

"Is that a threat?"

"_No," _Ada looked over her shoulder. "_It's a simple fact. And you're not the only one Umbrella's been tracking._"

Alice felt a chill go down her spine. "The convoy?" she hissed menacingly, just as if she could actually hurt Ada. Jill and Carlos had come closer and she had them both beside her.

"_The Terra Save has been on Umbrella's radar for years, now, but Wesker has recently developed interest for one person in particular,_" she calmly recited. "_He thinks that he can get to you through her._"

"He's a dead man if he touches-"

"_She is inside a chopper, on her way to Umbrella Prime,"_ Ada watched the blonde's expression turn blank. "_She was tricked with a voice simulator device. They sent a transmission to her, pretending to be you. The soldiers surrendered her and abducted her in the middle of the night. Wesker wants you to come after her."_

"How come Alice will know this is not a trap?" Jill asked when she noticed that her friend seemed paralyzed. Back in her day at S.T.A.R.S, she had heard nerve-wrecking stories about famous Albert Wesker and Ada Wong.

"_It_ is_ a trap. But not a lie. For a week she was held hostage in a cell in Detroit, and then I picked Claire Redfield and drove her to the helicopter myself. You have to go find the rest of the convoy and lead them to Arcadia. You'll need to gather as many people as you can, and make sure they can shoot and fight. You'll need help, and I'll do my best from here."_

"Why are you helping us?" Carlos asked.

"_I have my reasons and they do not concern you_," Ada said simply. "_But Albert Wesker took something really important from me, and I want him as dead as you want. If you choose not to believe me, it's your loss. If you decide to take this mission, I'll instruct you further once you get to Alaska."_

Jill's mind was spinning. Claire Redfield. There was only one Claire Redfield she knew, and she was Chris's sister. Was it him that Alice meant before? She wanted to ask the blonde, but she looked past beyond shocked to speak.

"_I advise you leave this facility as soon as possible,_" Ada spoke again, looking over her shoulder one more time. "_Project Tyrant is still running in the lower laboratories, and I'm not sure it'll stay down there for much longer. I assume you have a radio in your car?" _she asked Jill, who nodded. "_You can broadcast on the emergency frequency and you'll find the convoy. They will confirm what I said about Claire. And Alice… For God's sake, control your brain and stop burning electronic stuff," _she scoffed. "_Good luck." _With that, the screen went blank.

Jill held Alice by the shoulders. "Come on. Let's get the hell out of here."

Alice simply went along with them towards the elevator, unable to speak, let alone think. She felt Jill keeping a firm grip on her arm; that was probably what kept her from being defeated by the sensation of a free fall. Carlos had an arm around her waist, and the three of them were lifted to ground level once the power was restored.

It felt good to see the sun again. Jill's dusty car was parked only a few yards away from the house, and Carlos detached from them to get the explosives in the trunk. Jill stared at him, appreciating what he was doing, and then she turned back to Alice, squeezing her eyes because of the clarity.

"Carlos and I will help you get there. It's going to be all right," the brunette promised her friend. She wasn't sure if they should create expectations, and she was not even sure if they would make it, but she had to try. Alice needed her, and somehow the idea of meeting Chris Redfield again was something closer to going home.

Carlos left the house with the detonator in his hands. "It's all set up. We have ten minutes once I activate it."

Jill offered him a short nod and lit a cigarette. "You ready?" she asked Alice.

The blonde shrugged, scanning their surroundings, Claire's scent swirling around her just as if the breeze carried it. The lump in her throat was definitively bigger than before. She withdrew for a second to collect her duffel bag that lay forgotten on the ground and turned to Jill. "I'll be a minute," she muttered hoarsely.

Alice looked up at the sun and then closed her eyes. Claire's smiling face invaded her thoughts, leaving the tent with her messy red hair. The blonde clutched her hands around the duffel bag and felt different contents there. She parted it open and removed objects that, at first, had no reason to be together. Then she understood.

It was Claire's – she had kept the screwdriver and Alice's shirt. She recognized the blood in the front from the night Claire punched her after a fight. Alice swallowed hard and looked up again as every unshed tear blurred her sight. The bright sky started to darken. Clouds gathered to hide the sun, and within seconds, rain was falling over her.

She knew it wasn't her doing it. Alice heard Jill's and Carlos's muffled exclamations. It had been years since it rained for the last time and they even jumped out of the vehicle for a moment, arms stretched to greet the water.

"Alice, come on! The bombs!" Jill called out over the thundering noises, her black hair plastered to her face.

The blonde put the items back on the duffel bag and slung it over her shoulder. She watched the dark blue sky for a second longer and then entered the car. Jill stared back at her with a reassuring smile. Carlos hit the detonator button and turned the key on the ignition.

When they stood about a mile from the house, it flew through the air into pieces, the fire contrasting beautifully with the storm. Alice rested her head on the window and brought the duffel bag to her chest.

"Claire," she whispered. "I swear-"

**This is the final chapter, BUT NOT THE END. Thank you all for sticking with me until now. Sequel's already on the making.**


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